Amtrak and small communities

Sometimes I feel that Amtrak is missing a bet (even politically) when it does not promote its services to small communities nationwide. Aside from the NEC and some other routes, much of Amtrak's network serves many small towns in the Midwest, South, and Far West. For many of these towns this is the only public transportation services available. Remember that Greyhound has made major route cutbacks over the years, new bus services like Megabus are mainly city center to city center, and air service is minimal for small towns. Ideally I would like to see 2 trains a day on the LD routes with convenient times for towns along the entire route. Any comments?

Sure, just one question?
Who's going to pay for it?

While I agree, the money just isn't there.
Ok, and another question. For example, for years I've advocated something like a "Southwest Scout" a coach only version of the SWC, running at about 12 hours later. But... is it worth making all the same stops, or perhaps running a slightly different route and hitting other towns, but hitting major ones twice a day.

This means major cities might double their number of trains, but other areas would remain the same and some would increase their number of trains an infinite amount(0 to 1).

There's SOME savings on economies of scale here, but you still have 2x the crew costs. You have more hardware you need. You're paying the tenant railroads more money.
In the long run, you're now losing more money. Someone has to pay for it. Who?

WestShoreMan wrote:Sometimes I feel that Amtrak is missing a bet (even politically) when it does not promote its services to small communities nationwide. Aside from the NEC and some other routes, much of Amtrak's network serves many small towns in the Midwest, South, and Far West. For many of these towns this is the only public transportation services available. Remember that Greyhound has made major route cutbacks over the years, new bus services like Megabus are mainly city center to city center, and air service is minimal for small towns. Ideally I would like to see 2 trains a day on the LD routes with convenient times for towns along the entire route. Any comments?

To me, it's not worth the costs in general. If you have a limited amount of budget and a limited amount of equipment/train miles, you want to maximize the ridership/revenue on the limited resources. If I had a choice between adding a train in Wyoming or California, I'd choose California every time. More potential riders and more potential money. The long distance system is supposed to IMO serve the major markets first. If Las Vegas, NM is along the way between Chicago and Los Angeles and it isn't too much a hassle to stop there, go ahead. But the priorities should be the big markets first. Don't forget there are a lot of large markets (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Nashville, Columbus Ohio, Louisville) that have no Amtrak service at all and others like Cleveland and Cincinnati that only have graveyard shift service.

To me Amtrak service is a privilege, not a right. If you can put butts in the seats and money in Amtrak wallets, you should get a train. If you can't, you shouldn't. I think Amtrak is screwed up because they don't think like that and would rather cancel a more popular train for a less popular one. Big cities in general have more available resources and services than small towns because they have more people to support those resources and services. There are no major professional sports teams in Montana. Why should there be? If you don't like it, move. I lived for many years in a small city without Amtrak service (they still don't). But I moved. Now I can go to sporting events and rock concerts that I used to have to drive 100 miles to see in the past.

I will add one reason why Amtrak might want to do this: Politics.

The move people who rely on and use Amtrak are more likely to vote for politicians who vote for more money for Amtrak.

The problem is other politicians promise less government spending and lower taxes and often they're the ones that get elected. As important as Amtrak and train travel is to me, it isn't the lone factor that will determine who people vote for.

While these Amtrak signs have been showing up in some MA and other states,
they have showed up in Claremont NH, along with more directional signs to
the station.. I assume (always dangerous to assume) that the local committee
that has been promoting the Vermonter and put together the visit of the
Amtrak Exhibit Train last week, helped to get the new signage installed.

I understand that additional directional signs and the Amtrak signs are also
soon to be going up in Dover and possibly Durham and Exeter. Here's a file
photo of the sign. Good to see local support for Amtrak in NH, where the
Legislature runs for the hills anytime Amtrak or rail transit is mentioned.

http://www.iberkshires.com/ckfinder/use ... G_7091.JPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dick H wrote:While these Amtrak signs have been showing up in some MA and other states,
they have showed up in Claremont NH, along with more directional signs to
the station.. I assume (always dangerous to assume) that the local committee
that has been promoting the Vermonter and put together the visit of the
Amtrak Exhibit Train last week, helped to get the new signage installed.

I understand that additional directional signs and the Amtrak signs are also
soon to be going up in Dover and possibly Durham and Exeter. Here's a file
photo of the sign. Good to see local support for Amtrak in NH, where the
Legislature runs for the hills anytime Amtrak or rail transit is mentioned.

http://www.iberkshires.com/ckfinder/use ... G_7091.JPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The "Amtrak-served community" signs have been up in the Seacoast towns the Downeaster stops in for years now. Not everywhere, but there's a couple of them. They don't provide any benefit to the traveling public, which makes them kinda pointless, but driving by one often reminds me to pull over and check the train schedule.

Dick H wrote:While these Amtrak signs have been showing up in some MA and other states,
they have showed up in Claremont NH, along with more directional signs to
the station.. I assume (always dangerous to assume) that the local committee
that has been promoting the Vermonter and put together the visit of the
Amtrak Exhibit Train last week, helped to get the new signage installed.

All we did was ask Amtrak for some signs and they sent them to us. We had the DPW put them up for us. And the businesses around the stop have taken advantage of them when giving directions to their locations. "Just follow the Amtrak signs!"

The folks at Amtrak have been very supportive of our efforts in Claremont and have provided many resources. We have seen modest growth in ridership at a time when most others have declined slightly. It just takes a little effort.

As indicated earlier in this thread, the problem is money.

As is well known, there is no railroad passenger systems that make money. They all require financial support from somewhere. Only once in a blue moon does some enterprising individual come forward and propose and pay for a new passenger service, such as that in Florida and in Texas. And look at the resistance they are getting! So, the problem is to get one or more government organizations to 'pony up' the needed finances.

The unfortunate reality these days is there isn't enough money to keep our roads and bridges in decent repair, let alone add more spending somewhere else. Politicians are hard pressed to come up with some sort of reasonably painless way of paying for a new streetcar line, much less a new Amtrak route. They have no choice but to rob Peter to pay Paul. It's just a matter of how what kind of 'voodoo economics' they can come up with to finance it. Too many people falsely believe that Washington, and individual state governments are awash in money they are looking to spend. Even if that WERE the case, each politician would want to spend it in such a way as to be most advantageous to themselves...eg...getting reelected.

The first step, however, is to get a sizeable number of politicians 'on board' with the idea of a new route, or even increased train frequency. I, like many others, would love to see a 2nd schedule for all overnight Amtrak trains. But the problem is how to get Washington thinking this way when they can't even pass any kind of law these days due to the 'great partisan divide'. Even at a state level, getting enough citizens that feel new or increased rail service grows more difficult every day. Yes, there seems to be some 'movement' on restoring the Sunset route east of New Orleans, but that's been what...10 years to get an inspection train and a good turnout at each of the cities? Who's going to come up with the dollars to do this? Who's going to furnish the equipment to do this? Oh...and don't forget there first has to be endless study upon study, needlessly sucking 10s of millions of dollars to make sure some little frog isn't endangered, or some farm animals don't get terrified by the extra 1 train each way.

Am I a skeptic? Absolutely. Yes, new light rail lines and extensions are getting built. Even high speed rail in California has started building. But it's a very long, drawn out process, at least 10 years or more before the first shovelful gets dug. By then, a new group of politicians will seek to kill it before it gets too far along...witness Scott Walker in Wisconsin. As a believer that transit is a far better solution than the automobile, we can only continue to make our voices heard by our elected politicians and hope they will take some action.

We discussed this topic at the board meeting of the Virginia Assn. of Railway Patrons this spring. Adding service to small communities, at least in Virginia and West Virginia, which are the states in which we work for better service, doesn't necessarily mean adding trains. For example, Bedford, Va., is presenting a good case for being a stop on the Roanoke route (http://www.thebedfordstation.com/), which should begin service next year (yes, it's a new train, but it's starting whether it stops in Bedford or not). Orange, Va., on the existing Crescent, Cardinal, and Lynchburg routes, is a substantial town, and even if the Crescent and Cardinal don't stop there, maybe the Lynchburg and Roanoke trains could. Two of our members, Dan Peacock and his brother, the late Dick Peacock, worked to promote the Burke Center, Va., Amtrak stop once it was established (it was already a Virginia Railway Express stop). In some areas, such as the Shenandoah Valley, we do think that new regional service could, if not pay for itself, at least serve a sizeable market.