StLouSteve wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:28 am
I don't really understand why there is so much anti-Amtrak sentiment on an Amtrak board.
There are other boards that are totally "pro-Amtrak" where members hold that "if it ran during 1952, it should be restored". From personal experience at one such, if you are not, they will run you off.
I personally am not "pro-Amtrak" I participate here because I think my eleven years in railroad management (not high up, but "there") can bring useful insight to the participants. Amtrak is a means of transportation that I will next use when it represents the most convenient means to get from here to there. I have taken "joyrides" in the past, but "the past is the past".
As a railroad security investor (long UNP), I want to see my investment prosper, and interference from Amtrak trains, particularly the LD varietal, do not help that cause.
Therefore, I hold the only places that Amtrak should be in business is where they provide unquestioned needed transportation; and I'm afraid that only means the Corridor. They should also be there when Localities choose to sponsor and pay for intercity services. Apparently, a locality, the State of Missouri, is questioning the continued need for a service. That is the prerogative of their Legislature and Governor, so it's a "come what may", regardless of what arguments Mr. St Louis Steve is presenting here with maturity and respect.