I remember that shutdown. It was for one day in December 1980 because the MBTA had run out of funding. Ed King called in the national guard. I also remember the Boston and Main Strike on the commuter rail about 2 months later in 1981. That lasted 2 weeks.
This happens in industry all the time even today. It's like the fable of the scorpion and the frog crossing the river. I started out in the computer mainframe industry and saw its demise mostly caused by fiber optics. IBM touted the installation of fiber optics because it speed up information...
According to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, airline pilots average 75 flight hours per month. The CFRs limit Part 121 pilots to 100 flight hours per calendar month and 30 hours in any seven consecutive days. They work an additional 150 hours per month performing other...
I have found the cost of car rentals downtown are usually more money. I don't travel to Denver and Atlanta but the major Northeast cities and Florida typically have cheaper prices at the airport. But the real problem with downtown located car rentals are the limited business hours. This is a...
Via Rail essentially does this with the Canadian. It does have coach class but that ticket costs $500 one way and doesn't include meals. A sleeper ticket in a berth starts at $800, a roomette for one is $1600. All sleeper accommodations are always sold out. It only runs twice a week and it...
Also, one of the biggest reasons that the railroads agreed to Amtrak running passenger rail was because Amtrak took over financing the pensions of the employees of the passenger trains.
I don't think it has ever been a better time for Amtrak to expand their fleet. I think the demand is there. The long distance trains appear to have high load factors with many sleepers typically at capacity. I travel to Florida on Amtrak multiple times either on the Auto train or Silver...
NYS is getting a service that is costing Amtrak almost $3 million a year. Am I naïve in thinking there is a signed contract that breakdown said costs and expenses?
It should be fairly simple with this data set for the silvers. There are three trains running on mostly the same tracks. 1 is non stop and carries auto freight. The other 2 travel a little longer but have multiple station stops. 1 is profitable the other 2 are not. Take the auto train and...
The other thing I find interesting is that Amtrak loses $17.7 million on state sponsored trains in total. Shouldn't there be an adjustment made, either ticket price increase or more state funding? To be honest the state sponsored routes should all be profitable to Amtrak. Amtrak is losing...