To return the favor to CrawlingWestward--check out his post on the future or potential lack thereof for Amtrak, and, if you've got time, link to the Pic's article for more details.
Short version for those without time: Bush is able to finance a trillion dollars in fat-cat tax breaks, he'll pour the cup to the tune of $160 billion and counting for a war of convenience (I'll look for the link to the Army War College assessment), he'll gut environmental regulations of the type that could, if strengthened and enforced, make train service more attractive--and he'll propose a voyage to the MOON or MARS for chrissakes--but he WON'T (not can't, WON'T) seek to fund a genuine transportation service that all of us could use. Un-fucking-believable.
Like Timshel, I've taken advantage of Amtrak, although my ride on the Adirondack Limited was a bit shorter than the Sunset line. I went from Montreal to New York City a year and a half ago (aside: Montreal, at least in the summer, is an undiscovered gem of a city. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend visiting).
Was my ride perfect? No it wasn't--we ran a couple of hours late, due mostly to speed limits in the small towns and limited rails that forced us to shunt off to a side track while a northbound train went past. Was it nice? Traveling down the Hudson River valley in the middle of summer--hell, even West Point looked fantastic. Add to this the fact that I had the equivalent of a double first-class seat, and, while the "cafe car" wasn't exactly fine dining, it was acceptable fare (longer lines have dining cars, with considerably better food, I hear--and the passengers have the option of a sleeping berth).
Having taken trains in the Netherlands, Morocco, and the United States, I can assure anyone reading this of the following: they WORK. Yeah, for long trips an airline will get you there faster, but for shorter hops--even a north-south traverse of New York State--a train will more than do the job. You're not packed in like a sardine, you can see the scenery, and, most important, you don't have to concentrate on driving--although many drivers don't bother with that either--sometimes these folks are merely annoying, other times they are the cause of wrecks.
My attitude towards rail service is that it could easily fill a niche between long-range air service and extreme short range automotive traffic (although I'd also like to see metro rail providing an alternative to cars). Rail service, called Amtrak or whatever, could provide tremendous economic benefit to the Gulf Coast. I've noted many times that I'd spend a LOT more time and money in New Orleans if I didn't actually have to drive there and deal with the brain-dead road warriors along the way. Hell, I'd probably put Biloxi, south Alabama, and even Florida on my regular list of places to visit if there was a way to get there cheaply and easily. For that matter, I'd even occasionally ride over to Houston (cough), if anything interesting was going on.
But rail service makes too much sense. Better to keep the public trapped in the automobile--even if they occasionally find themselves on the losing end of the interstate lottery.
Off topic: another busy day of work over here. If I can post something this afternoon, it will mean that I was very productive. But the business of State calls--time to
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