Amsuck
By adamg - Thu, 06/19/2008 - 10:26pm.
Dan Kennedy and Chris Helms both write about how Amtrak is sucking this week, not so much because of track work in Connecticut as the way the railroad is handling replacement bus service and, in Helms's case, not notifying riders with reservations about the suddent change.
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amtrak has sucked for years...
really? people are surprised that one of the worst run companies in the US is providing sub-par service? amtrak has been terrible for years and will only be kept alive because the major airlines are being crippled by the bush administration's mind-bendingly poor oil policy. Sadly, fung wah is the best transport between NY and Boston.
Wha?
Amtrak is kept alive because it's fundamentally cheaper to move people to New York by train. The airlines are being kept alive because they receive higher government subsidies than Amtrak so that they can even compete. If we put them on an equal basis by making airplane passengers pay to build airports through higher ticket prices instead of funding the entire infrastructure for the airlines on the public dime, then the airlines would pretty much disappear and rail travel would come roaring back into fashion.
One major difference
Railways require a lot more eminent domain than runways. Blame the NIMBYs. Until those attitudes change, commuter trains will still share with freight and new track will never get placed for true high-speed options like they have all over Europe.
Or, in the case of Acela through Connecticut
All those coast-hugging tracks which, while they provide something nice to look at out the window, sure do slow the train down, even with their special anti-nausea curve handlers (or whatever it is they call them).
The worst spot
New Rochelle. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of the railways. The power goes out, the train coasts, stops, waits...
As I understand it, it's the curve-tilters that create the big problem for the Acela. The tracks are so close it could bump into a train going the other direction if it were tilting, so they slow it down. The rails need to be farther apart. But, as Kaz says, NIMBY. They can steal some poor old lady's house in New London so Pfizer can fete its executives, but widen the railway? Never!