'Amtrak Joe' is Tired of Defending Amtrak, Announces $1.3 Billion in Stimulus Funds for Nation's Rail Services

"If rail travel made sense in this country, it wouldn't take tax money to keep it around."

Air travel makes sense, yet it uses tax dollars, no?

"Yup, another well run government disaster. If Amtrak were private, it just might even turn a profit!"

Amtrak is owned by the government, but run just like a private business. Making it truly private would make very little difference. About 99% of the Amtrak system runs on tracks owned by private freight railroads, who dislike Amtrak running on their tracks because it supposedly inconveniences their operations. If Amtrak wasn't run by the government, it wouldn't have any authority and would be kicked off the freight tracks.

In order for Amtrak to generate more revenue, it must attract more riders. In order to attract more riders it needs to improve it's service.
In order to improve it's service it needs more money.

One has to spend money to make money.

Thinkaboutit. Roads are constructed and repaired by automotive and truck road use and gas taxes...subsidy? Amtrack stays afloat by shoveling billions of our tax dollars to a poor service very few use. Annually Amtrack looses money with every ticket sold. Raise ticket prices to cover the actual cost. That would be brutal then the wealthy Senator plagiarist Biden would be paying his own way instead of having taxpayers subsidising each of his 7000 trips.

Just wait until gas climbs up again and hits that $5 a gallon mark. You'll wish we had invested in trains then. My tax dollars subsidize the federal highway system and you don't hear me complaining. Look at the thousands of miles of highway that serve a relatively small population and the millions of dollars it takes to keep them up. Wake up people! You're not as smart as you think you are.

People who live in the middle of nowhere always complain when the government considers spending money on Amtrak. They claim the USA is so big, and everyone lives in suburbs and small towns far from dense population centers.

The facts are, most people in the USA live in "dense population centers" like the eastern seaboard and the west coast. Thats why they are referred to as "dense population centers" - because most of the population lives there.

Trains works great in these areas, and when the govt spends money on trains in these areas - they are actually benefitting the majority of the USA population.

"...train travel to Harry Reids speed-train to Vegas."

Thanks for repeating the Republican talking point, Billy. Too bad it's just another lie. There is no Vegas "speed train" in the Stimulus bill. On the otherhand there is money for support for the LA to San Francisco and LA to Fresno and Sacramento California High Speed Rail initiative already in progress.

"This was to go 700 miles. I can drive it in 8 hours and cost a fraction of train travel."

You can average over 87 miles per hour?

"This isn't Europe. If you have been to Europe, you'd know they live on top of each other. They have far less area and shorter commutes... because they live on top of each other. We are vast and spread out, even our cities."

There are over forty cities in the US of 400,000 people or more. Plot them on a map and you will see that scarcely a handful are more than 400-450 miles from the next. A sweet set-up for high-speed rail.

Give em the money.

And lower the ticket prices in southenr california. a round troip ticket from La to Oceanside is $28 and that DOESN'T include your cost to get to the train station. Seems like it should be morelike $5 if you want people to take the trains.

We subsidize the rail construction. Why not subsidize the ticket price which is where it makes the most difference if we want the pollution offset?

Amtrak just doesn't yet have the cost advantage or the speed advantage. If you want to get somewhere cheaply you drive.

For example, I live in Baltimore. Baltimore to New York is just over a 3 hour drive and would cost about about $30 in gas plus tolls (round trip, up to 5 people).

Flying would take about 1 hour and would cost $350 (round trip, assuming 2 people).

Taking Amtrak would take 3 hours and cost $256 (round trip, two people).

I want to like the train, because I hate getting stuck in traffic and I hate the hassle (and sitting around and waiting) of going to the airport. But they need to speed up the travel time and reduce the cost before it becomes my first choice of travel.

What about the West Coast.
Americans Train System is so depressing. Look at Europe and Asia.
As a Fine example of what they can do with their train system.
Image a first first class service between Seattle and Portland. Working in one city living in Another.
Travel around the West coast and even Across Country.
One day.

Warning, reading the comments section has been shown to provoke depression.

If rail travel made sense in this country, it wouldn't take tax money to keep it around. I don't care how much Talky Joe loves to ride on the choo-choo, let him do it without picking my pocket.

Listening to some of the detractors stating that investing in rail is a bad idea makes me wonder if they really know the full history of rail in the US. As an industry it has been taxed and regulated heavily to the point where its in the sad state it is versus highway and air travel. Another blackmark against rail as an effective transportation for passengers is it doesn't classify as a Class I not to mention that the vast majority of the 22,000 or so miles over which Amtrak operates are actually owned by freight railroads. Amtrak has specific time windows where they have priority but if they miss the window most freight directors force them to follow behind the freight carriers.

Since coming to Germany in 2007, I've used all the available rail transportation here in Europe (Deutsche Bahn, TGV France, British Royal Train) and am amazed that if Europe "gets" the benefits rail provides them why we as Americans accecpt such sub-par transportation options.

Airstrip One had state-owned trains, too. So what?

Perhaps they should hire an Italian Fascist to get them running on time.

Re: GIJoe,

"Too bad there really is not very much demand for Amtrak transportation..." Where do you live, in the ocean? There's a huge demand for Amtrak.

All job creation by Obama are govt jobs roads highways bridges trains...where are the private sector jobs? Once everything is fixed the jobs will be gone. The $ going to welfare what happens when the stimulus $$ runs out? Ob is raising taxes on small business which will cause lay offs and cause them to close = no jobs. And it will keep people from starting business. Ob strategy is NOT long term. Cutting spending and across the board tax cuts is teh only way to create jobs it has always worked in recessions. THe 80s the 90s 2000. This banking crisis was not caused by this policy it was cause by Barney Frank Mass and Chris Dodd Conn on the Banking Comm saying in a hearing their is no problem in banking and allowing people loans who don't work, had no credit and bad credit.
WHO did they think would pay the loans?
THEY should be investigated.

To the blame Bush for all the liberals spending the US Congress holds the purse strings the Pres only signs the legislation. Pres Bush should be blamed for not VETOING all the out of control liberal defect spending.

Wait til you get Uncle Joe's Teeth and Hair Bills for the next 4 years...

Well, isn't that lovely. Too bad there really is not very much demand for Amtrak transportation due to the kinds of housing we like to live in. Might work well in a soviet style block apartment building city. Will that be next, by any chance?

It's too bad that the Amtrak system has been neglected for so long that when someone tries it, they are disappointed. The fact is that this type of story merely proves the point that there is much to be done.

Rail works well for distances of 500 miles or less, provided the infrastructure is in place. Even though the US is probably a long way away from anything beyond 125 mph trains, it is about time to take the steps we need. The US dropped this ball a long time ago.

Hey Western Stomper - We tried Amtrak for our daughter going back to college. Thought we'd have her leave her car at school and go back and forth by rail, you know, "go green". We found out the 5 hour trip normally takes 9 hours! The stations were a dump, and the idiots working there berated the passengers, and just about ran them down with the golf carts. No thanks, we'll have her pollute for 4 years. Yup, another well run government disaster. If Amtrak were private, it just might even turn a profit!