The big ax just fell. Long distance to 3x/week.

gokeefe wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:10 pmMr. Norman,

Please allow me to refer to "Perkowski's Saw" ... Congress controls these programs not the White House. These trains have just as much of a future as they had a past. Certainly no caviar on "The Chief" but otherwise, "yes" the Builder will return to "once a day each way" in due course.

To further this analogy, individual senators and representatives are often wicked smart, but Congress collectively is pretty dumb. If one state demands LD service other states will demand the same, even if that money would give better benefit elsewhere. “If the Joneses have theirs, we darn well should too.”

LDs will come back, considerably better than even odds.

If ridership on LD trains is THAT bad, why not just do a promotion and sell a number of tickets per train for $1 each or give them away for free? If seats would otherwise be empty, what’s the loss?

Amtrak could probably win some friends on Capitol Hill by cutting its police budget and putting the saving towards giving away free tickets.

Tadman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 6:50 am I'm not pulling for Biden to win but if he does I have high hopes for Amtrak. But it seems the "Amtrak Joe" appelation is one of convenience, not policy intent. Acela is truly the best way to get an important person from Wilmington to DC.

So are you saying he should be know as "Acela Joe" now?

mtuandrew wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 7:01 am

gokeefe wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:10 pmMr. Norman,

Please allow me to refer to "Perkowski's Saw" ... Congress controls these programs not the White House. These trains have just as much of a future as they had a past. Certainly no caviar on "The Chief" but otherwise, "yes" the Builder will return to "once a day each way" in due course.

To further this analogy, individual senators and representatives are often wicked smart, but Congress collectively is pretty dumb. If one state demands LD service other states will demand the same, even if that money would give better benefit elsewhere. “If the Joneses have theirs, we darn well should too.”

LDs will come back, considerably better than even odds.

But if everyone wants their train and there isn't enough money for everyone to get their train, the more important Congressmen will get to keep their train(s) and the less important Congressmen's trains will get canceled (i.e. the Three Rivers getting canceled while Byrd Crap got kept).

Nope. That's why they call it a "House" of Congress. Especially in the case of an ongoing program cuts (and subsequent restorations) will be proportional.

Yes, I'm sure if President Trump gets elected to a second term that *maybe* they will take a stab at making cuts at Amtrak but yet again "Perkowski's Saw" applies. Barring an extremely unusual election result in which there is a sea change in Congress there will not be majorities in either house that would allow cuts.

Andrew is right. Better than even odds they will all be restored.

The historical "comp" here are the service cuts and subsequent restorations made during the USRA period during WWI.

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The historical "comp" here are the service cuts and subsequent restorations made during the USRA period during WWI.

I don't think so, at that time there were no airlines, no interstate highway system, etc., the country actually needed LD passenger trains.
II would say AMTRAK will follow the airlines and look for demand signals before restoring service.

They may be getting more demand sooner than expected, if this gets more play:

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/19/88056458 ... g-pandemic

The Transportation Security Administration withheld N95 masks from staff and exhibited "gross mismanagement" in its response to the coronavirus crisis – leaving employees and travelers vulnerable during the most urgent days of the pandemic, a senior TSA official alleges in a new whistleblower complaint.

On Thursday evening, the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that handles whistleblower complaints, said it had found "substantial likelihood of wrongdoing" in the complaint and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to open an investigation.

...

(The whistleblower's) allegations include that personal protective equipment was withheld from TSA employees, that local supervisors were not permitted to mandate masks, that the TSA failed to adequately execute contact tracing, and the TSA declined to require that employees change or sanitize gloves between passengers.

The coronavirus crisis hit during one of the nation's busiest traveling times: spring break.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 4:29 pm They may be getting more demand sooner than expected, if this gets more play:

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/19/88056458 ... g-pandemic

This doesn’t surprise me unfortunately, given the early problems at the Veterans’ Administration. But if you’re flying today, what other choice do you have? Either you:
1) already discounted the transmissibility, fatality rate, or even existence of COVID-19, and don’t care about what the TSA may have had;
2) need to get somewhere in a hurry no matter the cost to health;
3) are going somewhere Amtrak doesn’t, or;
4) have given up on mass transit and are renting a car or driving your own.

NY&LB wrote:

The historical "comp" here are the service cuts and subsequent restorations made during the USRA period during WWI.

I don't think so, at that time there were no airlines, no interstate highway system, etc., the country actually needed LD passenger trains.
II would say AMTRAK will follow the airlines and look for demand signals before restoring service.

The point isn't modal. It's with regards to an operational change related to government action. Government action caused a change necessitating service reductions and the exit from this situation should result in a restoration of the "status quo ante".

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bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:38 am

Tadman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 6:50 am I'm not pulling for Biden to win but if he does I have high hopes for Amtrak. But it seems the "Amtrak Joe" appelation is one of convenience, not policy intent. Acela is truly the best way to get an important person from Wilmington to DC.

So are you saying he should be know as "Acela Joe" now?

No, I'm just saying that we shouldn't read too much into the name. Some guys get nicknames due to attributes they don't vigorously support as policy. We used to have a friend that had a nickname related to a long past marijuana habit. He now has a very respectable job and multiple degrees. He sure doesn't go around outwardly pushing marijuana use as policy even though we still use his name.

Tadman wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 9:31 am No, I'm just saying that we shouldn't read too much into the name. Some guys get nicknames due to attributes they don't vigorously support as policy. We used to have a friend that had a nickname related to a long past marijuana habit. He now has a very respectable job and multiple degrees. He sure doesn't go around outwardly pushing marijuana use as policy even though we still use his name.

Besides, "Amtrak Joe" shouldn't be taking the trains anymore since he disrupted the Brunswick line last decade.

Just that incident makes me joke that "The conductors need time to sweep each train for hazards, sleeping people, and Vice President Biden."

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 7:08 pm

Tadman wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 9:31 am No, I'm just saying that we shouldn't read too much into the name. Some guys get nicknames due to attributes they don't vigorously support as policy. We used to have a friend that had a nickname related to a long past marijuana habit. He now has a very respectable job and multiple degrees. He sure doesn't go around outwardly pushing marijuana use as policy even though we still use his name.

Besides, "Amtrak Joe" shouldn't be taking the trains anymore since he disrupted the Brunswick line last decade.

Just that incident makes me joke that "The conductors need time to sweep each train for hazards, sleeping people, and Vice President Biden."

How so? Did his private rail car cause switching delays at WUT?

With perhaps a few unknown or obscure exceptions he never rode private. Always Amtrak other than arriving for the inauguration in 2008 with President-Elect Obama.

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Seems like there's a Trump version of the truth going on here. Or maybe short memories.
Obama / Biden started billions of $$ of rail spending, curtailed by lack of really shovel ready projects, then Republican success in the 2010 mid terms , and some key ( to the rail projects)governor elections.

https://qz.com/1761495/this-is-why-the- ... ed-trains/

Pensyfan19 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:40 pm How so? Did his private rail car cause switching delays at WUT?

Lest we forget!

A Southbound run on, say, Jan 19, 2021? Great song from my "teenhood".