Philly Amtrak Fan
Engineer
Much has been made about what Amtrak would look like if they canceled the LD system as the Trump/Heritage budget suggested. In addition to the NEC, state supported trains will exist (assuming continuing funding) although some trains would lose a lot of riders without LD trains supporting them.
Whenever I (or any state/city) asks "where's my train", Congress's response since they put together the 750 mile route essentially is "go ask your state". We know some states refuse to provide service despite potential routes such as Cleveland-Cincinnati and Dallas-Houston which look to be quite popular.
So the question is what if every state thought like that and there were no state supported train service in the US and the only Amtrak service would be the NEC and the LD trains? It certainly wouldn't be as drastic as cutting LD's but there certainly would be holes in Amtrak.
States who would lose all their service:
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Michigan
Oklahoma
Cities who would lose all their service
Harrisburg, Lancaster
Newport News, Norfolk
Niagara Falls
Detroit
Oklahoma City
San Diego (Correction: Santa Barbara is on the CS)
Fresno, Bakersfield
Missing routes:
Pittsburgh-Philadelphia
Charlotte-Raleigh
Chicago-Detroit or Grand Rapids
Los Angeles-San Diego
Forget all the areas that don't have service now, these areas wouldn't exist without their states' support. Congress has basically said these routes and service to these states/cities is "not our problem", not to mention the trains/routes that won't appear if the states continue to say no like they have. And if California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Illinois, etc. stopped funding services to these states/cities would disappear as well. In my state of PA, only four stops would have service and one is Connellsville which barely counts unless you live there. This doesn't include areas/routes that would lose a lot of service (ex. upstate New York would only have the LSL, Milwaukee would only have the EB). You say Amtrak needs to serve the areas that they do, what about the areas that only have state supported service or none at all?
Without a doubt the LD system covers a lot more area than the state supported system but there would be significant losses as well.
Whenever I (or any state/city) asks "where's my train", Congress's response since they put together the 750 mile route essentially is "go ask your state". We know some states refuse to provide service despite potential routes such as Cleveland-Cincinnati and Dallas-Houston which look to be quite popular.
So the question is what if every state thought like that and there were no state supported train service in the US and the only Amtrak service would be the NEC and the LD trains? It certainly wouldn't be as drastic as cutting LD's but there certainly would be holes in Amtrak.
States who would lose all their service:
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Michigan
Oklahoma
Cities who would lose all their service
Harrisburg, Lancaster
Newport News, Norfolk
Niagara Falls
Detroit
Oklahoma City
San Diego (Correction: Santa Barbara is on the CS)
Fresno, Bakersfield
Missing routes:
Pittsburgh-Philadelphia
Charlotte-Raleigh
Chicago-Detroit or Grand Rapids
Los Angeles-San Diego
Forget all the areas that don't have service now, these areas wouldn't exist without their states' support. Congress has basically said these routes and service to these states/cities is "not our problem", not to mention the trains/routes that won't appear if the states continue to say no like they have. And if California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Illinois, etc. stopped funding services to these states/cities would disappear as well. In my state of PA, only four stops would have service and one is Connellsville which barely counts unless you live there. This doesn't include areas/routes that would lose a lot of service (ex. upstate New York would only have the LSL, Milwaukee would only have the EB). You say Amtrak needs to serve the areas that they do, what about the areas that only have state supported service or none at all?
Without a doubt the LD system covers a lot more area than the state supported system but there would be significant losses as well.
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