by gokeefe
Greg Moore wrote:Back on topic, I do think at least for the Empire Service perhaps a more moderated approach of, "we'll probably cancel stuff, but if things aren't too bad we'll try to run a few trains, but definitely do NOT expect full service, no matter what."I think this is precisely the type of ambiguous "limited service" that Amtrak is seeking to avoid. It has all of the risks and none of the benefits of providing real, consistent and safe service. At least by unambiguously announcing a shutdown they gain all of the associated flexibility for MoW crews and have a better shot at a clean restart of full service on the next day.
The other problem would be stranded passengers at stations with nowhere to go. In some limited instances this could be an extraordinarily risky proposition with little if any guarantee of a train actually ever coming. "Back in the day", especially in the Northeast, there almost certainly would have been a staffed and heated station with a nice warm potbellied coal stove at a bare minimum. For a thousand different reasons those days are "lost and gone forever" in most small towns. Finally, even though the big cities have the station facilities necessary to care for the railroad's passengers the Right of Way remains a challenge to keep open without hiring a veritable army of temporary track workers.
Perhaps if the U.S. Mail were still carried over the rails the cost-benefit analysis would be very different. But that is no longer the case, and so there is far less pressure on the railroads to keep the trains running and the tracks clear.
gokeefe
