This is a column I wrote 15 years ago, (July 24, 1997), but it’s still true!
I know, that sounds like pure heresy. I love trains, have photographed thousands of them, written for TRAINS Magazine a couple of times, own every issue of it ever printed, and have at least a hundred railroad books, many of them extremely rare and valuable. I have ridden the Silverton train a hundred times, and from Alamosa to Durango five times, and most of that line was torn up in 1970. I have ridden in cabs, slept divinely in lower Pullman berths, and wept profusely at thundering steam locomotives. No one can doubt my loyalty, but AMTRAK is not railroading; it is a bureaucracy. In 1997, Amtrak soaked up over $700 million of taxpayer money, and in 2012, it is $1.42 billion.
Since 1971, many billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to keep AMTRAK going, in the vain hope that someday it will break even. Nothing should be saved if it can’t exist on its own, and that includes people, businesses, and trains. Throwing buckets of bucks at problems or causes has never worked, and never will. Look at AMTRAK today, and regurgitate. Ever ride AMTRAK first class? It is a miserable experience. George Pullman’s cars had more room, longer and wider berths, and class, which AMTRAK lacks. The food makes Denny’s look aristocratic, and could never compare to a meal on the Southern’s Queen and Crescent, or the B&O’s Capitol Limited.
AMTRAK is basically, an unwelcome guest and nuisance to freight railroads, which allow its continuance only, because not renewing its contracts, would undoubtedly bring down administrative wrath upon them by a hobgoblin, malicious, Congress. AMTRAK gets in the way, makes ungodly demands, and in general ties up the lines. Greyhound is not subsidized, and taxpayer supported seats on AMTRAK are driving Greyhound into bankruptcy. With the Interstate Highway speed limits of up to 75mph,, autos travel faster than AMTRAK, which usually has a 69 mph limit on most trackage, excluding the Northeast Corridor.
Anyone who wants to go anywhere, drives, and of they can’t afford a car, let them ride the bus! AMTRAK crews look like airline pilots, unlike railroaders of the past, and have not a smidgen of devotion or respect for flanged wheels running on steel rails. They are merely traveling bureaucrats who could care less about the passenger train’s glorious heritage.
Think about an entire generation of American kids who have grown into adulthood, believing AMTRAK is what passenger trains have always been. They haven’t the foggiest idea of the “20th Century Limited,” “Broadway Limited,” ” Super Chief,” or other extinct names of grand passenger trains in America. AMTRAK is a feeble attempt to emulate the glorious passenger trains of yore, with a continual promise to ’break even’ next year, if they can just get some new top-heavy cars, ugly locomotives, or update their gobbledygook procedures. AMTRAK will never break even, and will never command anyone’s loyalty, other than those benefitting from a continuous transfusion from the pockets of taxpayers into the bottomless fuel tanks, shops, bureaucrats, passengers, and employees of AMTRAK.
As far as the Northeast Corridor is concerned, which was bought with many billions of taxpayer dollars, if it can’t show a profit, and it doesn’t, auction it off to the highest bidder, no matter what the bid may be. A for-profit corporation or business conglomerate could make it, or they wouldn’t take a chance, risk capital, or bid. As for the rest of the equipment, let it be auctioned off the same way, assuming anyone in their right mind would bid on a current “state of the art” ugly duckling, P-40 AMTRAK locomotive. Maybe freight railroads would be delighted to buy AMTRAK cars and operate passenger trains for profit on their lines. It’s possible that LA-San Diego, LA -San Francisco, Seattle-Portland, a resurrected “400” between the Twin Cities and Chicago, and even the Northeast Corridor could earn a profit, if run by a for-profit group or corporation.
Who loves AMTRAK? Absolutely no-one, other than its overpaid employees, those afraid to fly, or too broke or cheap to drive. Let them ride the bus. So what if they are slower than AMTRAK? As a taxpayer, I don’t owe anyone a fast ride, nor do I owe my dollars to an outfit that has been sinking ever since its ill-conceived conception. Government doesn’t do anything well, timely, or cost effective, and AMTRAK is a classic example.
RIP Kitty Wells, the first big country-western gal super star. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honkey Tonk Angels,” is immortal. She died yesterday at age 92.