by Gilbert B Norman
I'm simply at a loss to understand how this topic has become a "mini epic".
It's so simple; the roads signed that "Faustian Pact with the Devil" to get out of the financial drain, and from being there on A-Day, Charlie Schiffer, MILW's Treasurer, remarked what a Godsend that advance on May '71 operations from Amtrak was.
But the surviving roads, my MILW not being one of such, are strong enough they need not those advances to stay alive (I've heard reports that SP was in the same shape) and there is simply no way they will become involved in intercity passenger trains again.
Not some "Mixto Diario" arrangement; not any way.
So, young railfans, "get over it". If Amtrak is successful, using COVID as a guise, in being rid of the LD's by recognizing the marginal societal value they provide, more power to an agency recognizing what passenger rail transportation is needed, and simply what no longer is not.
It's so simple; the roads signed that "Faustian Pact with the Devil" to get out of the financial drain, and from being there on A-Day, Charlie Schiffer, MILW's Treasurer, remarked what a Godsend that advance on May '71 operations from Amtrak was.
But the surviving roads, my MILW not being one of such, are strong enough they need not those advances to stay alive (I've heard reports that SP was in the same shape) and there is simply no way they will become involved in intercity passenger trains again.
Not some "Mixto Diario" arrangement; not any way.
So, young railfans, "get over it". If Amtrak is successful, using COVID as a guise, in being rid of the LD's by recognizing the marginal societal value they provide, more power to an agency recognizing what passenger rail transportation is needed, and simply what no longer is not.