Recent content by sttom

My grandpa stole at least 30 gallons of motor oil from the SP when he retired. It was for personal use though, not resale. So people do steal the damnedest things. Although why steal from Amtrak and use the Post Office? Those have to be 2 of the 3 most bored law enforcement agencies in the...

Why some passenger services were kept had to do with what was to be considered an intercity service and what wasn't. Amtrak was meant to save intercity services and some commuter operations did make some money, so its not like they all universally wanted to get rid of them. Along with various...

The defund the police slogan comes from the notion that you need to demand something extreme to get something more workable. The actual goal is to reform the police, effectively speaking but they think you need to demand the abolition of policing to get real reforms. There are police...

The votes can be secured if you give Congress something to vote on and someone at Amtrak were actually competent at making the point that they can provide a much more useful service for the money. For twice what Amtrak did manage to get from the Infrastructure bill, they could easily double the...

The only expedient way to change the minds of state legislators is to take support for rail out of their hands. We did so with roads under the Interstate Highway Project, doing the same for rail would be no different. They would become more willing to support rail as it becomes a more normal...

My only question is about the Corporate tier. Is it a separate deal for businesses or is it a regular tier?

Amtrak must share with other operators because that is a natural good, but the private companies doing the same? That's communism.

Public transit in Colorado contains some of the weirdest agencies and plans that I have come across. Beyond FasTracks not working as planned and it costing more despite the promise of the P3 was it would be cheaper than if RTD did the whole thing themselves. Union Station was a glamour project...

My fiance flew last night on Delta in Delta One and he told me the food was bad. He ordered a salad and it was flavorless aside from two seasonings, one of which was garlic. I doubt food will come back anytime soon. Meals aren't hugely expensive, but it's going to be a while before things come...

Doing a complete blacklist of Chinese suppliers would get Siemens blacklisted from China. While China might not need Siemens, Siemens would like to do business in China and they are a lot more than their transportation division. Is lead contamination of US made products a big deal? I'd be more...

I always see people complain about Amtrak's website, but I don't see how that's a big problem. Compared to Southwest or Alaska, it's pretty standard minus the inability to do the flexible travel day thing like most airlines do. I do agree the app is a bit broken. Beyond it breaking more than it...

One supplier in a country as big as China is unlikely to get all the companies in a country black listed. That would be irrational especially for a global company like Siemens. Almost as dumb as swearing off all Japanese cars because a Nissan sucks.

I agree with that was already mentioned is standardization of business class across the system. It's kind of a shame how much it varies across the system and that needs to end. An overnight business option is also a must. I would also say that any Thruway bus route that has a parallel rail...

It's going to take more than just a housing crash to change building patterns. That would take action on the part of the state government with respect to zoning and building codes, their commitment to transit (Amtrak included), and changing the road layout in suburban developments. The last one...

Another thing we really need is better development patterns and a useable transit system. Where I live, we have the population and business density to sustain a route with 20 minutes headways, but we have a handful of routes running about as frequently as Amtrak's corridor routes and they aren't...