Amtrak & Accella

[Benjad]

Out of curiosity, is Amtrak finally really screwed, or is this saga going to continue for lots more time to come.

Accella is laid-up, because of mm size cracks in break drums. I kind of wonder how many other problems are out there that get ignored, but somthing like this grounds the entire fleet.

Amtrak really is going to have no cash by the end of the fiscal year. And it sounds like congress doesn't feel like finding a real solution.


Privitization does not really sound like a great solution. Also,with the number of passengers in the "NE corridor" who use commuter rail operated by Amtrak.. what would happen should those services just stop running because Amtrak ran out of cash?

[krtaylor]

I have a hard time thinking that Amtrak will actually die. It seems it's like airlines - it seems like for sure they've had it this time, but the government always bails them out anyway.

I suppose I could be wrong though. Personally I think we'd all be better off if Amtrak did die, and was privatized.

The fact is, the Northeast Corridor actually makes quite a lot of money! And if it were run by a private business, who could do a decent job with service and marketing, it would make even more. Maybe Richard Branson might be interested?

Plus, there are quite a few services that are operated by Amtrak, but subsidised by the states they run through. Obviously those make money.

I don't think Amtrak services will cease, particularly not in the NEC. Either the assets will be sold to a private company as-is and operated that way, or sold to an existing freight railroad to operate (which would work too); or possibly operated by the local state railroad authorities (though not all of them have the ability to do that.)

My expectation is that, IF Amtrak dies, here's what would happen:

- Some disruption in the NEC, very temporary - something would be cobbled together by the various states, and Amtrak-like operations would resume pretty quickly. Probably even Acela would come back - as I understand it, they are operated under contract with Bombardier who made them, and they are liable to make them work.

- Some disruption of California and Pacific Coast services, quickly taken over the CalDOT and Oregon/Washington/Nevada. Those services are also profitable.

- The AutoTrain to Florida would revive, that used to be a private business that was bought by Amtrak anyway. Probably non-AutoTrains would run the same route too.

- I think that the New York - Chicago and Chicago - California trains would return, although maybe later, because there is a good bit of market for long-haul scenic train travel. You can see the country that way, in a way you can't do any other way. I've always wanted to do this but never had the money and the time.

Most everything else would die, except for maybe a few services taken over by various states.

[The Irish]

Richard Branson might be a good idea.

There seamed to be a lot of progress in England since he has started with VirginTrains. Might be a good for the US as well.

[Hyronymus]

It's got nothing to do with a company being good for the US I think. AMTRAK was the national solution to passenger trains attracting less and less passengers (due to airplanes). On the other side there was the fact that cargo had priority over passengers on American railroads for a long time. If that's the case it's pretty hard to establish a decent passenger service. Fortunately the Acela needed seperate track which gave birth to the oppurtunity for such a decent passenger service. Branson would indeed do a good job on that kind of services but I doubt if he can do well everywhere in the USA.