I haven't gotten into these discussions yet, but two things stand out in this thread. First, I don't think we need to feel a sense of personal shame for our government's treatment of passenger trains, specifically Amtrak. I'm ashamed of our government, but that shouldn't reflect on us mere citizens, individually or collectively. Polls show that the majority of Americans want a good passenger rail system. The government (supposedly "of the people") just hasn't caught on yet for some unfathomable reason.
Second, I keep hearing about the terrible service Amtrak provides, but I have yet to experience bad service. At least not anything that is within Amtrak's control. On all of my trips in recent years the service has been good to exceptional. It may be uneven, and there are no doubt some bad apples in the company, but that is no reason to make blanket statements about service across the entire national system.
As one who rode Amtrak regularly in the 1970s, I can tell you that service today is 1000% better than it was then. The current crews may not be perfect, but there are a lot of good, hard workers on the trains and I hate to see them lumped into the same category as the few bad ones.
Yes, Amtrak does need to deal with the problem areas. But, as I've said before, I think Amtrak would have more resources to deal with these internal problems if the company didn't have to spend so much effort dealing with external problems, including a inconsistent Congress, a hostile White House, and uncooperative host railroads.
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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy
The Del Monte Club Car
[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 09-21-2003).]
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