mattfels wrote:LI Loco wrote:I couldn't care what time the train left here for Clifton Forge, Charleston, WV, Ashland, KY or Cincinnati because I have little reason to travel to those places. But there are many people in these and other communities who have reason to come here.
In other words, LI Loco favors only a regional system with New York City as the sole hub and spokes radiating out from it. Not a national network.
LI Loco wrote:But I'm also a realist
Not even close. No realist would maintain this strange obsession with George Warrington and his supposed sins, nearly TWO AND A HALF YEARS after his departure from Amtrak.
Mr. Fels -
I'm curious as to how you reconcile your fervent support for the national system with your seemingly undying devotion to praising George Warrington's stewardship of Amtrak. Everything I know about the Warrington years suggests that he wanted to junk the national system in favor of focusing on the NEC and other corridors.
Consider the following:
1. His strategy literally bet the bank on the Acela project.
2. During his tenure, Intercity's infrastructure was neglected. Damaged cars would be sent to Beech Grove and left to rust. When Amtrak went into cost-cutting mode, Beech Grove was one if its key targets as most positions there were eliminated.
3. Business initiatives initiated under Warrington, such as express freight and the "satisfaction guarantee," wound up hurting long distance trains' financial performance, not helping them.
4. Mr. Warrington had no problem with the less sufficiency mandate. He maintained almost till the end of his tenure that Amtrak was on a "glidepath" to meet that goal. He did object, however, to Amtrak's public service mandate, which Congress would not let it shake loose from.
5. In early 2002, Mr. Warrington made his position on long distance transparent by threatening to eliminate all overnight trains save Auto Train. Had that plan been executed, the national system would have disappeared and the remaining service would have consisted of clusters of lines in the Northeast, Midwest, California and Pacific Northwest.
I agree: "There is no need to "rehabilitate" George Warrington's reputation. The facts, all of them, speak for themselves."