Likely the most appropriate topic at which to introduce this material appearing today in The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/us/a ... d=em-share
The Times appeared to have changed, i.e. "tightened up" their sharing protocols - even for print subscribers. So "feedback" if this works is appreciated:
Fair Use:
WASHINGTON — For Amtrak, the coronavirus pandemic has not only slashed ridership and any chances of breaking even, it has also forced its leaders to face an existential choice: act like a for-profit airline or a government-subsidized entity.
Since March, ridership on the national rail agency has fallen by 95 percent and projected revenue for 2021 has declined by 50 percent. In response, Congress has bailed out the rail network with $1 billion in emergency funds.
But Amtrak’s leadership says it needs more money. Otherwise, it will have to cut costs by decreasing its work force by 20 percent and curtailing service on long-distance routes that serve areas where Amtrak is often the only mode of public transportation. The rail agency receives federal funds but is independently run.
“Operating trains with very few passengers on them at all, during a time of constraint — capital constraint, cash constraint and uncertainty around funding — doesn’t make a lot of sense,” William J. Flynn, Amtrak’s chief executive, said in an interview.
The first observation I have is that Mr.
Anderson can "color himself lucky" in that he was the only recent CEO to "escape" without a major crisis on his watch. Consider: Mr. Moorman had to address Penn Station no doubt because his predecessors "swept it under the rug", and now Mr. Flynn must face COVID which, to me, is the greatest confrontation Amtrak has faced to its continuation as a going business concern.
Even complete elimination of the Long Distance system, which of course I hold is forty years overdue, will not "right the ship". Business travel, while of course is far less of Amtrak’s ridership than that for airlines, will never return to pre-COVID levels, as companies have learned that "Zoom" conferencing works well enough and at far less cost (including exposure to liability from "nocturnal extra-curricular activites" that won't stop just because someone says "no-no").
Now the advocacy community, along with their friends on The Hill, notes LD ridenship is down 62% compared with 80 for the whole system. They further try to compare such with the Postal Service and brcause of the "underserved" rural communities should be continued. But one little difference - the Postal Service has a constitutional mandate to exist, and the last time I checked Amtrak only has enacted legislation.