For years now there has been an effort to discredit and subsequently eliminate Amtrak’s long-distance trains. Most of it is based on a false premise: that the long-distance trains are losing millions of dollars a year and there is little if any economic benefit to justify the cost of any subsidy by taxpayers. Those who…
If you have never been on a long-distance train, I’ll acknowledge you might have a hard time understanding how anyone could justify taking three days to cross the country when it can be done in only six hours by plane. And I’m guessing much of that hesitancy is because you have an image of spending…
Westbound out of Chicago on the Southwest Chief about a dozen years ago, I awoke on the first morning and peered out the window to find that we were stopped in Dodge City, Kansas. Five minutes later, the conductor called “All Aboard!” and as we gathered speed, we passed a hand-painted wooden sign that said…
There was a high-level meeting a couple of months ago to discuss the fate of the Southwest Chief. All interested parties were there, including two United States senators and at least one very senior Amtrak executive. The purpose of the meeting was to hear how Amtrak proposed to transport passengers between Albuquerque, New Mexico,…