Mercy Killing Long Overdue
Can we just kill off Amtrak yet? What a ridiculous state of affairs. The freight railroads orchestrated a self-serving deal to rid themselves of passenger service (the least profitable part) and saddled us with Amtrak. It's overpriced and excepting the east coast, doesn't conveniently go anywhere. We subsidise this idiocy with tax dollars and yet look at the price of a sleeper cabin (the only way to travel by rail). Preposterous.
The time is overdue to mercy kill this cash grab. Let the freight carriers get back to work and while we're on the subject how about a damned bullet train? The French are frequently ridiculed for one reason or another by Americans with no understanding of history, but they just had a train go 358Mph. We have Amtrak. I think it's time we all had a piping hot cup of shut the hell up.
posted by Stucco at 5:44 PM
7 Comments:
Yeah, I agree. Here in Texass there was talk of a bullet train from San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and El Paso with future expansion to Oklahoma. Each leg would be less than 1 hour (plus boarding) so one could logically commute to any city of choice since most of us take an hour and half to get to work 30 miles away.
However, true to Texass style, we nixed that retarded idea and are now looking at a mega toll road called a super slab. Yay for Idiots
Oh, and I agree about Amtrack, kill them off, its almost cheaper to fly. Never mind it takes days to travel anywhere cool... Like Seattle. which by the way would take 70 hours and cost almost $800.00 for 4 stops and 2 roomette reservations (not even a room, a closet with cot).
Good ridance Amtrak.
I looked into Amtrak to Seattle. I'd have to drive half way there and then hide my car, then take longer to get there by a bit than had I just kept on driving.
The bright side is that no terrorist want to blow up something so appalling...
Yeah, but...we'll need it back when we run out of gas.
Pants, the Peak Oilist
The Japanese have THE fastest and most advanced bullet train.
I have mixed feelings. Passenger trains have been a part of american folklore for a long time. I think it's time to shame whoever runs this shit (gov't subsidized travel is always a joke in the US).
I took the California Zephyr from Denver to San Francisco a few years ago and it was a highlight of my life for so many reasons (Donner Pass in the dead of winter, the wetlands of central California, the Rocky Mountains, etc.). With these days of airport travel nightmares, it's nice to still have the option of rail. Sometimes, the journey is more important than the destination.
As for where i live, the freight companies wanted to charge Amtrak $11 million per year just for the luxury of stopping here, thus stopping rail service into the nation's 5th largest city.
I know Amtrak is a cash cow but i would hate to see it disappear. If we could somehow get it up to the standard of european railways i would definitely use it more often.
Besides, we dump tax dollars into far more idiotic pursuits. If they took just one year's worth of the billions they spend in Iraq and poured it back into public transportation, we'd have a terrific system. But even if there was no Iraq, they still wouldn't put the money back into this country's infrastructure.
Amen, General Catz.
They need a competitor.
Wow, if I'm not Mrs. Stating The Obvious.
Shit.
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