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Comments, possibly informed.

Tim Wilson
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
timatollah@mackandtim.net
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What to do about Amtrak

The WaPo is reporting (here) that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is going to outline the administration's plan for Amtrak in a speech tomorrow. It sounds like what they're talking about doing is spinning off the profitable Northeast (Bos-Wash) Corridor operations and threatening to cut off routes unless the states pony up to continue subsidies for the money-losing operations. There are also mentions of "managed competition" (sans details), as well as farming out what are currently union jobs to contractors.

A recent piece, "Amtrak Must Die" (here), in the NYT Magazine detailed Amtrak's problems, from employee (bad) attitude to congressional pork. The author is a self-described rail fan, or "foamer" (as in, "at the mouth" about trains) who has come to the conclusion that something drastic has to be done about Amtrak.

posted by Tim Wilson at 10:17 PM