Recent content by ohle

Yes, a daytime train from ATL to DC is needed, as is ATL-FL and ATL-CHI service. ATL is one of the country's largest metro areas (I believe it's 6th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area), and is growing like wildfire. Only one single train a day is an insult to such a populous area. Same with...

That was one of the stupidest, non-researched ideas anyone at Amtrak ever conceived. Clearly, Anderson has little understanding of passenger rail and that irrational decision showed he knows little about travel in general, and next to nothing about why people travel by train. People would want...

And the NEC is... what.... 1% of the traveling public? A limited, and mature (not expanding) geographic region. So... those trains shouldn't run either? Cruises and waterways account for a tiny fraction of freight and passenger movement, as does transit overall, compared to the...

Just because you, in your narrow, parochial and limited view, don't see any value in the LD trains doesn't mean that holds true for most. The long-distance trains, like Amtrak's other divisions, are experiencing record ridership in the last five years, the highest ever. Which means more people...

Amen. So much for this dismissive attitude that "nobody" rides the trains outside the lightly-used, less occupancy (and more highly subsidized) corridors and big cities, which could care less about those in "flyover" country. As the law states, that's THE LAW, "Amtrak shall operate a NATIONAL...

The request to halt proposals to discontinue trains and remove amenities seems reasonable. After all, there's strong evidence Anderson and his cronies are working from false information to justify their harmful plans, which will damage Amtrak and passenger rail. Yes, an outside audit, like the...

The report says Amtrak overstates long distance costs by $300 million per year, while understating NEC operating costs. Example: Maintenance of way costs for the NEC are counted as capital costs, not operating costs. Likewise, state payments are considered to be "income", while federal...

I suspect that could be the case. Still, he's made so many wrongheaded decisions that will forever harm the cause of passenger rail, it's hard to see how anything he's doing will benefit anyone (except his beloved NEC).

No, his focus has been, and continues to be, off-course. It's very hard to defend his numerous irrational decisions, which have little basis in reality. One reading of his actions would assume he's a "plant," from the viscous Amtrak-hating "think tanks" that have long wanted to destroy...

Like many suspected, Amtrak's numbers aren't trustworthy. The RPA has blown the whistle on its faulty accounting. https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/releases/amtraks-route-accounting-fatally-flawed-misleading-wrong/ The report blasts Amtrak's faulty accounting, which it says...

The Rail Passengers Association today issued a paper blasting Amtrak's faulty accounting, which it claims unfairly places more costs on the long-distance trains than they are responsible for. RPA calls Amtrak’s route accounting system "catastrophically flawed" and contends it "grossly...

Some facts about the Southwest Chief: Among Amtrak's 15 long-distance trains, the train is: -7th in terms of ridership -4th in ticket revenue -2nd in seat miles -2nd in passenger miles It carries more passenger miles (length of trip) than any other Amtrak short-distance train outside of the...

This from Amtrak's presentation to lawmakers to discontinue the SW Chief. Note how the trains with the biggest ridership "lose" the most money (according to Amtrak's rigged accounting). More riders = more losses. No successful business runs like that.

P. 7 https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/monthlyperformancereports/2017/Amtrak-Monthly-Performance-Report-September-2017-Preliminary-Unaudited.pdf

I seriously doubt most passengers would willingly want to disembark a train mid-route and board a cramped bus for a 10-hour overnight ride. Again, it shows CEO Anderson's contempt for his customers. This "plan" was clearly designed to destroy one of Amtrak's most successful LD trains.