tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15276058.post515880523785418917..comments2024-01-23T08:50:37.343-08:00Comments on Urban Planning and Transportation Blog: This Week in AmtrakJohn Dornoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12041369067854087815noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15276058.post-92184756702252197272008-10-14T04:32:00.000-07:002008-10-14T04:32:00.000-07:00Amtrak employs nearly 19,000 people. It operates p...Amtrak employs nearly 19,000 people. It operates passenger service on 21,000 miles (34,000 km) of track primarily owned by freight railroads connecting 500 destinations in 46 states. Some routes serve Canada. Amtrak owns 730 route-miles of track (1175 km), including 17 tunnels consisting of 29.7 miles (47.8 km) of track, and 1,186 bridges (including the famous Hell Gate Bridge) consisting of 42.5 miles (68.4 km) of track.<BR/><BR/>----------------<BR/>hesslei...<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.drivenwide.com" REL="nofollow">new way to advertise</A>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16203208898114850082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15276058.post-52455759598262662592008-10-01T18:57:00.000-07:002008-10-01T18:57:00.000-07:00We will have to agree to disagree on some of it. T...We will have to agree to disagree on some of it. The French and the Japanese only started building high speed trains when their lines were at capacity passenger wise. <BR/><BR/>The biggest problem is the lack of a decent network. <BR/><BR/>How well would Southwest Airlines be doing with only a few routes that poorly connected to each other? We know, they would be doing poorly.<BR/><BR/>The biggest problem is Amtrak is that it it doesn't service enough markets that it can create a big enough market. <BR/><BR/>But I will agree so long as the politics controls the game it is in trouble.John Dornoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12041369067854087815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15276058.post-39114763030086216802008-10-01T13:51:00.000-07:002008-10-01T13:51:00.000-07:00I've been saying it for years, especially on my bl...I've been saying it for years, especially on my blog http://www.transitsleuth.com.<BR/><BR/>Amtrak is an embarrassing mess compared to what we had in this nation. Not that I can fault them with failing time and again and getting into a good operable state. With subsidies and Government intrustion at every turn in the transportation industry, Passenger rail has become a very non-economical way to spend money for private industry.<BR/><BR/>If private industry keeps getting pushed away by subsidized competition, union threats, and the other regular SOP of Amtrak there will never be a great expansion.<BR/><BR/>The Government, the people, of this nation never seem to want to push for expansion of something that is so horribly innefficient. I myself want more passenger rail, but I want to to be comparable to the Shikansen, the TGV, Virgin Rails, or something of that nature. Their ratio of passengers to staff is easily 2-4x as many as Amtrak.<BR/><BR/>Which would, based on those numbers, actually make Amtrak -<BR/><BR/>...drum roll please...<BR/><BR/>PROFITABLE on operations, and probably even profitable on infrastructure.Adronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00186606954315847845noreply@blogger.com