mattfuels wrote:
the correspondent wants "them" to offer CHEAP long-distance service
Of course I do, you want to pay more? Go look up the fares for a one way trip. For that kind of money I could drive there in a lesser amount of time and a lot cheaper too, even with gas at these prices. Multiply that by 2 for the roundtrip and its alot of money for a long, slow train ride. And when I say slow, I am referring to the poor track conditions, the waiting for the freight train game, and the track out of service game.
Go look up the price for flying from Philly to Chicago and compare that to the Amtrak sleeper option. Its a
HUGE difference My point being, Amtrak does offer a different service, and in terms of time it is inferior. Therefore if they want to attract more riders they should be priced accordingly.
If we want Amtrak to price its sleepers below market demand and below cost, then we want Amtrak run as a entitlement program for whiny so-called railfans
The demand of sleepers exceeding supply is not my problem, and if it costs them that much to run them they might as well not bother, I'll stick to coach, and please don't belittle yourself by insulting others. I'm not whiny, I simply expect good service.
mattfuels wrote:
The Rail Sale was a low price. Did that make it a good value? Not necessarily. That depends on the purchaser--specifically whether the purchaser was willing to adjust expectations to match. And clearly in this case he wasn't.
Ok Matt, so lets say I bought regular tickets and the sleeper for all that money. The train was still late, it was slow---Regardless of what tickets I bought, I expected the train to depart on schedule and arrive on scheudle and be able to make my connections. Yes, delays do happen to all modes of transportation, but in the case of the train its really inexcuseable. The fact that humans take a back seat to oil and other commodities is pathetic. I rode 4 trains on that trip and they were all late. 0/4 is very bad performance. So regardless of if I traveled Business Class or Coach has no bearing on my expectations. I expected on time performance.[/b]
Hardly any members of Railroad.net want Amtrak run like a business
They should run like a business. I don't mean turn a profit, I know that won't happen. Running like a business also means being customer oriented. It means running on time, and performing to customers expectations. What happened to the PRR days when everything was analyzed to maximize performance and minimize cost? Thats what running like a business means. When you will perform well, your customers will stay loyal.
I should note, although I can't quote a specific number, that I heard countless times on our trip "This is my last Amtrak trip" because of the excessive lateness, and outside of the NEC they all seem to do just that. If the LD trains have no practical purpose outside of railfanning and tourism, Amtrak might as well fold them up and let a private tourist operation run them. Stop wasting our tax dollars.