All Aboard
Posted By Russ Emerson on May 9, 2011 at 9:04 am
Amtrak Turns 40…Called a ‘Massive Failure’ by its Founder
Amtrak is:
- Government owned and controlled
- Union-operated, employing more than 20,000 workers
- Has a CEO appointed by the president of the United States
- Its annual budget is allocated allocated by Congress.
What could possibly go wrong?
You know you’re old if you can remember riding a (non-commuter) train that wasn’t Amtrak.
Well… either you’re old, or a hobo.
Me, I remember a family trip on the Union Pacific from LA to Chicago, and thence to Grand Rapids to visit my grandparents back around Christmas of 1968. It might have been 1969.
That trip stuck with me, so much so that the last time I traveled to California, in December of 2003, I took the train — coach from Raleigh to Washington and thence to Chicago, a sleeper to LA, and finally a commuter hop to Santa Barbara. It took three and a half days, during which I relaxed. That’s the way to travel, as far as I’m concerned.
Seems like a pity that it’s a dying mode of transport.
(Link via Ed Driscoll)
It’s dying in the US. Not so much in other places.