by Tadman
Pretend for a moment that you are on a conf call with Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden. They are offering to at least double the intercity passenger rail budget for next year, but there's some caveats:
1. You have to show a return of more than 1-for-1 seat miles. If the current budget is $1.8b and ridership is X, the new ridereship or revenue must be at least 2.1X.
2. You cannot upset the other track owners and operators, IE commuter and freights. Money or other offers are totally legit, but it has to have a return.
3. You do not have to use Amtrak, at least in it's current form. Scrap it all or use it some places or turbocharge it. Up to you.
4. It has to make a split congress happy, IE no hard-left or hard-right pipe dreams.
5. There is no mandate to use any of the current routes or equipment, but new equipment costs money and you have to keep a voting majority of congress happy.
6. This can include private operators on any variety of offering, from weekly scenic trains to heavy duty corridor.
7. Equipment can only be that commercially available or in service world wide today, IE no magic trains, no turbotrains, no maglevs, no Rader DMU.
These should be some interesting ideas, and keep it to maybe 10-20 bullet points rather than a book of paragraphs so guys can get through them.
1. You have to show a return of more than 1-for-1 seat miles. If the current budget is $1.8b and ridership is X, the new ridereship or revenue must be at least 2.1X.
2. You cannot upset the other track owners and operators, IE commuter and freights. Money or other offers are totally legit, but it has to have a return.
3. You do not have to use Amtrak, at least in it's current form. Scrap it all or use it some places or turbocharge it. Up to you.
4. It has to make a split congress happy, IE no hard-left or hard-right pipe dreams.
5. There is no mandate to use any of the current routes or equipment, but new equipment costs money and you have to keep a voting majority of congress happy.
6. This can include private operators on any variety of offering, from weekly scenic trains to heavy duty corridor.
7. Equipment can only be that commercially available or in service world wide today, IE no magic trains, no turbotrains, no maglevs, no Rader DMU.
These should be some interesting ideas, and keep it to maybe 10-20 bullet points rather than a book of paragraphs so guys can get through them.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.