by scratchyX1
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.co ... art-1.html
Greyhound's acquisition would be a great opportunity to integrate the inter-city transit network into a more seamless system. If Amtrak were truly visionary and about regional and national transit, not just railroad passenger service, it would make sense to merge the companies, with the aim of creating the kind of national transit system I envision (which used to exist anyway, through the combination of the various railroad passenger services and their interconnections, complemented by bus services from Greyhound and Trailways--national providers, and local and regional providers).
But unfortunately it's a stretch. Note that this is a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" concept at a massive scale. Sadly, I don't think either the federal government generally or Amtrak specifically have within them the ability to seize such an opportunity. The federal government is not known for its innovativeness and entrepreneurship although there are plenty of examples when it has done just that.
Amtrak was set up to be a "maintainer" of rail service, basically as a way to offload the expense of passenger service from freight-focused railroads increasingly in financial trouble, with a mandate for managed decline, complicated by difficult budget issues and political maneuvering within Congress, not to mention lobbying by private transportation organizations, especially airlines, to keep it uncompetitive ("Amtrak 2035 Map: Hopes and Challenges," Railway Age).
This person has proposed that greyhound , which is on market, be acquired and merged into Amtrak, for providing seamless
Greyhound's owner would like to sell. The media reports that First Group, the UK transit operator that tried to make a go of it in the US through three divisions: school transportation; transit agency service operation; and Greyhound; has sold its bus and transit division and wants to sell Greyhound, but has no takers ("FirstGroup sells bulk of US transport business in $4bn deal," Guardian).
Greyhound's acquisition would be a great opportunity to integrate the inter-city transit network into a more seamless system. If Amtrak were truly visionary and about regional and national transit, not just railroad passenger service, it would make sense to merge the companies, with the aim of creating the kind of national transit system I envision (which used to exist anyway, through the combination of the various railroad passenger services and their interconnections, complemented by bus services from Greyhound and Trailways--national providers, and local and regional providers).
But unfortunately it's a stretch. Note that this is a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" concept at a massive scale. Sadly, I don't think either the federal government generally or Amtrak specifically have within them the ability to seize such an opportunity. The federal government is not known for its innovativeness and entrepreneurship although there are plenty of examples when it has done just that.
Amtrak was set up to be a "maintainer" of rail service, basically as a way to offload the expense of passenger service from freight-focused railroads increasingly in financial trouble, with a mandate for managed decline, complicated by difficult budget issues and political maneuvering within Congress, not to mention lobbying by private transportation organizations, especially airlines, to keep it uncompetitive ("Amtrak 2035 Map: Hopes and Challenges," Railway Age).
This person has proposed that greyhound , which is on market, be acquired and merged into Amtrak, for providing seamless
Greyhound's owner would like to sell. The media reports that First Group, the UK transit operator that tried to make a go of it in the US through three divisions: school transportation; transit agency service operation; and Greyhound; has sold its bus and transit division and wants to sell Greyhound, but has no takers ("FirstGroup sells bulk of US transport business in $4bn deal," Guardian).
