How would you improve amtrak?

Question

It should be bought by a provate company vs. the goverment. But what should be some of the biggest changes that it needs. what need improvment?

Answer 1

I would hand all passenger services back to the private railroads. Bring on the BNSF Chiefs, the Union Pacific "City" trains and the Portland Rose. Bring on the Champions and the 22nd Century Limited.

"but they'd stop all passenger service" you say?

They would be required to run rail passenger service as directed by a new National Passenger Rail Board.

'but they will lose maney running these trains" you say?

Since there is no public passenger service in the world that actually earns a profit, including cars and planes too, these operations would need to be subsidized by a penny per gallon Federal Gas Tax earmarked solely for passenger rail economic loss remuneration. This would be a budgetary item out of the normal annual Federal Budget squabble.

'but they'll try and get away with cattle car trains and lousy service - remember the SP?" you say?

Some companies will actually do better than others. Some will try to get away with stuffing people in glorified boxcars. The new board will have to address these qualitative issues as well, perhaps on a remuneration per passenger basis. If the service stinks, then no one will ride it, hence less $$$ in remuneration.

Socialism? Maybe. So is the Interstate Highway System and the air carrier infrastructure when you think about it.

Darth Serious

Answer 2

A. Take the United States government out of the operational control!

B. Let the railroad either run them so they make a profit or shut it down just like anything else in the free Enterprise system.

Answer 3

I agree with Hammerhead and Hulk77.  You'll definitely have to take the government out of the equation because "politics" is always involved in any decision.  

Another way to improve Amtrak service is for Amtrak to have their own dedicated railroad instead of running on rails owned by companies like Union Pacific, CSX, and others because their freight trains has priority on the usage of the rail.  This means that sometimes Amtrak trains have to wait on a siding for the freight train to pass.

Another reason for having a passenger train dedicated railway is that Amtrak own personnel can perform the maintain tracks.  I believe the reason for some of the derailments of Amtrak's train are due to using tracks maintained by other railroad companies.  If Amtrak has their own tracks and maintains those tracks to a higher standards, you'll definitely see improvements in keeping their schedule and better impression of Amtrak in the public view.  People in Asia and Europe ride the railroad in their daily commute and travel because the reliability and punctuality of the service.

The U.S., state and local governments can help Amtrak build these dedicated passenger lines like they build and improve airports across the country.  They should use the same process that the airlines and government use to build these infrastructures.

With all the hassle of going through the airport sercuity and just getting to the airport, I'm sure people (especially business) will appreciate a lot less hassle going from cities downtown location to another downtown.  Also, having a standard fare (maybe based on distance) will be beneficial to cover operating expense for Amtrak and simplifying the fares for passengers to understand.  Just look at the nightmare of figuring out airline fares.  Amtrak will need to offer frequency to entice business travellers between major cities like these do in the Northeast.  Their operation should be profit oriented and should drop destination that are uneconomical.  If service is required for some destinations that are economical, do like the airlines and get subsidies for maintaining services essential for the public and get local support.

Amtrak might be able to offer a service that could compete with trucking industry and parcel service like Fedex & UPS by offering quicker point to point delivery of goods on their high-speed line.  For example they could run a short cargo train (i.e. - 5 to 10 cars length) between major cities like New York & Washington or Boston.

They just need to diversify and do some market and feasibility studies before starting new operations.

Answer 4

Great question, Amtrak needs some serious help, I live in DC and have family in arkansas, amtrak trains have the strangest way of getting there, they go from dc to chicago and then from chicago to arkansas and it takes a looooooong time, I mean come on why do I have to go all the way north and then come back down south, next the pricing is so screwed up, from dc to essex montana was $140 and chicago to essex montana was 154. why such a huge difference in price, shouldnt chicago to montana be way cheaper than dc to montana. I think no one at amtrak gives a c**p cause the goverment has their back. fix it please. Also their acela trains are a big joke high speed????? you call that high speed, you save a half hour to travel from dc to ny b ut it easily costs more than twice of what their normal trains cost. I mean save us a couple of hours and we will happily pay the extra cost of the ticket but no way in h**l I'm paying twice the money to save 30 mins.

Answer 5

Well I would provide service to areas is doesn't.