4.9 Billion

[Looking Glass]

AMTRAC needs $4.9Billion to Continue service. I have always wanted to take the Ride up the California Coast up to Seattle, BUT!! This organization is so poorly run. I do not believe they have ever had a profit and time to shape up or ?

 

[FreeBird236]

AMTRAC needs $4.9Billion to Continue service. I have always wanted to take the Ride up the California Coast up to Seattle, BUT!! This organization is so poorly run. I do not believe they have ever had a profit and time to shape up or ?

It's the post office on wheels.

 

[ElAzul]

I've done the Amtrak thing twice. Once was Central Ca. to Phoenix a long time ago and another from Southern Oregon to Salem Or. They were both dirty n ghetto as fuck. The Oregon trip was after I did a long drive to drop off some equipment at a job site and I remember being tired as hell but didn't sleep because I would have definitely had something stolen from me. The train was filthy and I swear I could see mold n crud in the hvac vents.

Amtrak= Greyhound of the rails

 

[SJP]

You guys still use rotary dial phones?

 

[Looking Glass]

You guys still use rotary dial phones?

"OLD SCHOOL" is NOT always Bad.

 

[pronstar]

You guys still use rotary dial phones?

I dialed “9” several years ago and am still waiting for the dial to come back around [emoji1787]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Wait until.the govt takes over the airlines and utilities...

These days will be "the good old days" when the lights stayed on and you could go see grandma when ever you wanted.

 

[Looking Glass]

I dialed “9” several years ago and am still waiting for the dial to come back around [emoji1787]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Some people make simple tasks so very difficult.

 

[TeamGreene]

I don't think it's ever turned a profit or at least was able to be self sufficient. And CA is doubling down with a "bullet" train, what a joke

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Why woudl Amtrak

AMTRAC needs $4.9Billion to Continue service. I have always wanted to take the Ride up the California Coast up to Seattle, BUT!! This organization is so poorly run. I do not believe they have ever had a profit and time to shape up or ?

There is no way to make the train travel business model comparable in price to and convenience to airlines or as convenient and flexible as a car. No one uses trains compared to other modes of transportation.

The same goes for bus travel.

 

[Ragged Edge]

I dialed “9” several years ago and am still waiting for the dial to come back around [emoji1787]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Good thing you didn't dial 0.

I use this, works great. Texting is a bitch though.

 

[bowtiejunkie]

IMO, it was setup to fail from the beginning. It doesn’t own it’s own track. Well, it owns 623 miles of track as of FY 2018 out of 21,300 miles it uses. For that reason alone it will never be successful. With freight taking precedence, Amtrak can’t keep its timetables. It should just focus on its top 10 routes and do select routes for touring purposes. But, it has to own track, which isn’t going to happen. It’s stuck just like the USPS. All the Gov’t rules, laws, regulations, and unions not allowing privatization. Congress can’t fix anything, so best that can be done, apparently, is keep pouring good tax payer money after bad “businesses”.

 

[WhatExit?]

AMTRAC needs $4.9Billion to Continue service. I have always wanted to take the Ride up the California Coast up to Seattle, BUT!! This organization is so poorly run. I do not believe they have ever had a profit and time to shape up or ?

Take it from me - riding Amtrak SOUNDS way better than it is.

The ONLY Amtrak that is worthy of being called a passenger train is the Washington corridor because of all the corrupt politicians who (used to) take it to/from DC. It's the only part of Amtrak that "works" like a real train. And that's because the corrupt politicians use our taxpayer $ to keep Amtrak funded while they lose millions/billions.

Long story short: I saw a show on cable TV years ago about taking the Amtrak train to Glacier National Park. So we did it. Took Metrolink to Union Station. Took Amtrak from there north - took forever to get to San Jose area - painfully slow; so much better to drive to there. Continued up the coast. Took forever. At least one segment they put you on Amtrak buses - that was the best part of the trip (seriously). Finally got to Seattle and eventually got to Spokane.

There we sat. And sat. Waiting for another train from Seattle. No info while we sat on the train overnight. Finally they said it would be hours more before the train would come. I got off the train, took a taxi to Spokane airport, rented a mini-van, picked up my family at the Amtrak station and I drove us to Glacier National Park. Great drive across Northern Idaho - the mountains of Coeur d'Alene and into Montana. Beautiful country. After Glacier we drove down to Yellowstone (bonus as the Amtrak would've returned us the way we took there) and then thru Jackson Hole and the Tetons.

Best part of the Amtrak trip was getting off the train and getting some of my money back for that gawdawful trip

 

[ChiliPepperGarage]

AMTRAC needs $4.9Billion to Continue service. I have always wanted to take the Ride up the California Coast up to Seattle, BUT!! This organization is so poorly run. I do not believe they have ever had a profit and time to shape up or ?

I took the train from Simi Valley to Seattle in the early 90's. I thought it would be a fun alternative to flying or driving. I was wrong. It cost as much as flying and it took 36 hours to get there! It stops at every little town along the way, sometimes twice in each town.

It is open seating so pretty much like riding a bus. You never know when some sweat hog is going to plop their fat stinky ass down next to you. Lots of unruly screaming kids running around. Forget trying to read anything or work on your laptop.

You can't see where you are going unless you are going around a long curve. You can only see out the side window and watch as things go zipping past.

When you go to the dining car you have to share your table with whoever wants to sit at it. This can be okay if you have interesting table mates but that is not usually the case.

The only way to have any comfort or privacy is to get sleeper but that was really expensive. Or maybe go with a big group of friends and just party the whole time.

BTW Looking Glass, how's Brandy?

 

[Flyinbowtie]

"The Post office on wheels"

Man ain't that the truth. Freebird nailed it.

When, not if, we have to face this incredible debt the country is carrying, this is a place to make some changes. As always, it comes down to do we have the political will to do so. This disaster needs to be broken up and it's assets sold to the railroads, who are in the business of being...railroads. Raise the prices on the metro corridors where these people movers make might make sense, and get them in the black.
Out west, where it don't work beyond the cities, dump it.
Local control for local transportation needs out here can decide. Commuter trains can work.
If there is money to be made by a California Zephyr or other high end luxury train service a business will b created to fill the need. If not, no more money down the black hole. If not, then there won't be one.
The country is going to face some damn difficult decisons in the very near future, and if we don't respond with some courage, and start eliminating these boondoggle money pits the other option is MASSIVE tax increases.

We get the Post Office and Amtrak coming in far too often for massive infusions of cash and neither one seem to be able to dig out of it.
Here in rural America the USPS is being hosed by the online retailers. Big time.

Example, and this is common in rural areas.
We have a PO box for our mail. Stopping at our little post office to pick it up is no big deal. When we order from the online retailers, we always use the street address for delivery. Always. A shoe box is about the largest thing that would fit in the PO Box. But, since we have our mail sent to the PO box we have it listed as the billing address.
The sellers know that the cheapest way to get the product out is the USPS. So, they ignore the shipping address we put in and, if there is any way possible, send it to the PO Box. Our local postmaster is a salt of the earth type of gal and she takes care of the people, and puts the yellow card in our PO Box, then brings the giant box out for us at the counter.
This happens a lot.
I always apologize to her, she says, "not your fault, this is happening all over the country, your tax dollars are subsidizing the online retail businesses, until someone decides to stop it we will keep doing this. With the COVID deal our workload has skyrocketed."
So has UPS workload.
We are at the end of our drivers route. For years we could depend on him rolling in no later than 4:30 pm. Nowadays it is regularly 7:00PM He says they are now busier every day than they used to be during the holidays.

 

[Flying_Lavey]

I took the Amtrak from San Luis Obispo down to Burbank and once from Burbank back up to Paso Robles. The ride south was very pleasant. That may have been because I had my 4 year old (at the time) daughter with me that had never been on a train. She was super excited the entire time. I found the cars quite clean and pretty comfortable. Didnt really see much of anybody Id think were overly suspicious and since we were going down the coast, the views out the window were great through Ventura. Then it was suburban sprawl and then valley trash.

The ride North was by myself. It was PAINFULLY slow (about 7 hours I believe, which is a 3 hour drive) The cars were older, yet still clean and since it was assigned seating (both times were) There were a couple of odd ducks around. Both times I was fairly smart and just brought a backpack with snacks and waters with me.

My opinions about both trips were, Its cool for little ones to experience for the first time. The workers were extremely personable and kind people. There is ZERO privacy, the trips take FOREVER (2 to 3 times the same time to travel by car), and the cost is only worth it if you are traveling by yourself. If not, the ticket prices are FAR more than the gas cost and you lose a lot of time where you want to be.

 

[WhatExit?]

Amtrak across the US (but not in the Boston to DC corridor) yields to all freight train traffic. Another reason the thing crawls.

We are at the end of our drivers route. For years we could depend on him rolling in no later than 4:30 pm. Nowadays it is regularly 7:00PM He says they are now busier every day than they used to be during the holidays.

Our postal carrier says the same thing. And I think the issue is that the USPS signed a deal with Amazon to deliver for them too. While that brings in $ I can only imagine how bad of a deal it is for US / USPS otherwise Amazon wouldn't have done it

 

[Kachina26]

I've done the Amtrak thing twice. Once was Central Ca. to Phoenix a long time ago and another from Southern Oregon to Salem Or. They were both dirty n ghetto as fuck. The Oregon trip was after I did a long drive to drop off some equipment at a job site and I remember being tired as hell but didn't sleep because I would have definitely had something stolen from me. The train was filthy and I swear I could see mold n crud in the hvac vents.

Amtrak= Greyhound of the rails

I call them a city bus with steel wheels. They mostly benefit those who can't or won't fly. The San Joaquins have some commuters on them, but not many.

With freight taking precedence, Amtrak can’t keep its timetables.

I can tell you that on my little stretch of RR, that is not the case. freight sits for Amtrak. If Amtrak doesn't make it's goal, the penalty can be as high as $50k. Most are around $10k though. People have been sent to investigation for delaying Amtrak. I can't speak for the other RRs though.

 

[regor]

You guys are missing it. I take the train to the river all the time, you just have to get the private coach. Your own room and bed when you want to dose off and when you come back from dinner, the bed's pulled and ready!!! I LOVE that ride, peaceful as all hell.

The only problem is dealing with the tweakers in Needles when you arrive at 12:30 AM and the station is closed.

 

[Kachina26]

You guys are missing it. I take the train to the river all the time, you just have to get the private coach. Your own room and bed when you want to dose off and when you come back from dinner, the bed's pulled and ready!!! I LOVE that ride, peaceful as all hell.

The only problem is dealing with the tweakers in Needles when you arrive at 12:30 AM and the station is closed.

I hear the return trip is pretty smelly from all the passengers that haven’t bathed in days.

 

[Rogers Hopeful]

Freight is supposed to yield to Amtrak. it happens sometimes. Amtrak was set to make a profit in FY2020. first time ever but it came at a cost. outsourcing reservation call center, diner service turned into microwave dinners. then covid hit.
Amtrak helps a lot of the small rural towns in the middle of the country. this is why all states petitioned to stop the bus bridge service they wanted to do with the train that goes from LA to CHI

 

[rcmike]

If you are going to ride Amtrak, the only way to enjoy it is to use a sleeper. Then it is fun, nice, pleasant.

Riding in coach is like a trip to hades..

 

[Kachina26]

You guys are missing it. I take the train to the river all the time, you just have to get the private coach. Your own room and bed when you want to dose off and when you come back from dinner, the bed's pulled and ready!!! I LOVE that ride, peaceful as all hell.

The only problem is dealing with the tweakers in Needles when you arrive at 12:30 AM and the station is closed.

Freight is supposed to yield to Amtrak. it happens sometimes. Amtrak was set to make a profit in FY2020. first time ever but it came at a cost. outsourcing reservation call center, diner service turned into microwave dinners. then covid hit.
Amtrak helps a lot of the small rural towns in the middle of the country. this is why all states petitioned to stop the bus bridge service they wanted to do with the train that goes from LA to CHI

They cut service LA to Chicago down to 3 days a week. Regor is gonna have to go out on Thursday, Friday service has been cut. And he can’t come home until Monday.

 

[regor]

They cut service LA to Chicago down to 3 days a week. Regor is gonna have to go out on Thursday, Friday service has been cut. And he can’t come home until Monday.

The boss is screwed, he’ll have to figure it out.

 

[94Nautique]

AMTRAC needs $4.9Billion to Continue service. I have always wanted to take the Ride up the California Coast up to Seattle, BUT!! This organization is so poorly run. I do not believe they have ever had a profit and time to shape up or ?

USPS: “Hey Amtrak, hold my beer...”

Postal Service Doubles Annual Losses to $8.8 Billion

USPS is no longer seeing accelerating growth from its shipping and package business.

www.govexec.com

Amtrak: “...damn”

 

[Activated]

USPS: “Hey Amtrak, hold my beer...”

Postal Service Doubles Annual Losses to $8.8 Billion

USPS is no longer seeing accelerating growth from its shipping and package business.

www.govexec.com

Amtrak: “...damn”

It isn’t necessarily the USPS’s fault. They can’t cut service days to 4 or 5 days a week. Their only option was to bend to Amazon and start delivering 7, the 7th day being Sunday. If they could just cut their rural/remote delivery schedule to 4 days a week they would save a ton of money.

Instead, they have to hire enough people to work the 7th day, with extremely low Amazon rates as the revenue source. UPS, FedEx and other carriers also use the USPS for final mile deliveries at low rates but not with an added service day. There is literally nothing they can do to become more efficient...for the most part.

 

[94Nautique]

It isn’t necessarily the USPS’s fault. They can’t cut service days to 4 or 5 days a week. Their only option was to bend to Amazon and start delivering 7, the 7th day being Sunday. If they could just cut their rural/remote delivery schedule to 4 days a week they would save a ton of money.

Instead, they have to hire enough people to work the 7th day, with extremely low Amazon rates as the revenue source. UPS, FedEx and other carriers also use the USPS for final mile deliveries at low rates but not with an added service day. There is literally nothing they can do to become more efficient...for the most part.

The problem is their model does not work. They can’t deliver enough pieces of mail with 600,000 employees. It doesn’t scale, and it’s an answer to yesterday’s problems. Same as Amtrak. Rail sucks, like really sucks. We’re pissing away tens of millions of dollars a year on just these two orgs.

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

Wait until.the govt takes over the airlines and utilities...

These days will be "the good old days" when the lights stayed on and you could go see grandma when ever you wanted.

or wait ten more years for the high speed train Calif is building lololololol

 

[Rogers Hopeful]

They cut service LA to Chicago down to 3 days a week. Regor is gonna have to go out on Thursday, Friday service has been cut. And he can’t come home until Monday.

I know from first hand knowledge. It sucks. Furloughs are next

 

[Kachina26]

I know from first hand knowledge. It sucks. Furloughs are next

Sorry to hear that, I know they announced 1,950 jobs cut. I hope it doesn't go deeper. Where do you run?

 

[Rogers Hopeful]

Sorry to hear that, I know they announced 1,950 jobs cut. I hope it doesn't go deeper. Where do you run?

Yeah they just announced another 2400 if they only approve last years level of funding. I run the Metrolink trains in the LA area

 

[Sleek-Jet]

The commuter trains here are empty. No one is going into the city since everything is still closed or restricted. Workers are telecommuting or driving in if they have to, no one wants to ride a standing room only Metra.

 

[94Nautique]

The commuter trains here are empty. No one is going into the city since everything is still closed or restricted. Workers are telecommuting or driving in if they have to, no one wants to ride a standing room only Metra.

The left always, ALWAYS runs into unintended consequences, and then fall back on the mea culpa of “but our hearts were in the right place” meanwhile thousands are left without jobs, and income and food just to save that one life.

fuck democrats