It's Time for the NEC to be its own Regional Operation

John:

Just read through your thread and it didn't come off as satire for me. Why? Because the NEC is really unlike any other piece of railroad on which Amtrak operates, to wit:

1) It's primarily a passenger, rather than a freight, railroad
2) Amtrak is the minority user (commuter operators run more trains and carry more people)
3) A significant part of Amtrak's capital budget for the NEC (about half, IIRC) comes from FTA grants to commuter operators, rather than from Amtrak's annual Congressional appropriation
4) 60% of Amtrak's riders originate or terminate on the NEC

So, given that Amtrak is a minority user, and that a large part of the capital budget comes from non-Amtrak sources, why not set the NEC up as an independent infrastructure owner a la Network Rail in the U.K?

With a Network Rail budget to match? Because that's what it will take.

Between Network Rail and operating subsidies to train-operating companies (TOCs), UK taxpayers will pay £5 billion this year for their rail network. To cover an island roughly equivalent to the Northeast United States in size. Money does matter. And no one knows that better than the subjects of the UK privatization experiment.

What the railfans find so odious about Amtrak is not fixed with re-orgs. It is fixed with MONEY. And no one's been able to explain how splitting off the NEC suddenly makes more of it available, rather than less.

Why we get treated this way ?? When UN comes up with a resolution the shrub won't comply.
When American soldiers commit atrocities, the shrub won't submit them to UN court.
When Israel is told by international court that wall is illegal, the shrub says its ok for Israel not to comply.
So as far as creating the UN the USA is the biggest non complying country.
If Washington would stop being Israels poodle and make decisions on wisdom instead of political croonyism, maybe then the world will respect us, but if we try to bully the world with militairy might we will go down just like every empire before us.

While separating the NEC from the rest of Amtrak may seem to some to be a good idea, in actuality it would be a disaster. As others have pointed out, it would be almost impossible to get the eight states plus the District of Columbia to ever agree on a funding concept which would adequately fund these services. All of the states involved, and especially the District, have so many other problems involving funding, that intercity rail passenger service will simply be a very low priority. This would result in a drastic reduction of service, regardless of the demand. Since the airways in the Northeast are already full, and flying is such a hassle in today's world, there is only one place for all of this displaced passenger traffic to go------ that's onto I-95. ( Forget Greyhound and Peter Pan--- they could never handle this kind of traffic--- even if present day Amtrak riders were willing to ride them)--- If this were to happen--- get ready for a five hour trip from DC to Philly.

I am locking this thread because the political discussion seems to be overtaking the original thread topic.

-otto-