Comments on Amtrak's new "Five year plans"

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How can you call the LD routes corridors when they frequently show up multiple hours late, or even if on time, in the middle of the night? Not to mention they're often slower than driving and certainly much slower than flying.

Some people can’t or do not want to fly or drive, so a late train or middle of the night arrival is still better than not being able to go visit a sick relative, family, maybe a medical specialist.
Remember, this is a large & diverse country. There are large areas without all the convenience s that densely populated areas have.
 
How can you call the LD routes corridors when they frequently show up multiple hours late, or even if on time, in the middle of the night? Not to mention they're often slower than driving and certainly much slower than flying.

On time performance is a lot better. I remember as a kid when Amtrak California had on time performance almost as bad as NJ Transit. I remember taking the train to Sacramento with my grandpa when i was 10 and the train *after* the one we wanted showed up first. Yeah our train was over an hour late. I remember taking train #5 a few years later and it was 3 hours late. Not as bad as it could have been at the time, but short of an act of God it hasn't been horribly late more recently on a near daily basis.

Also it's not like other options are better. When Megabus still ran the Reno-SF trip, they were 1-3 hours late on a regular basis and the Amtrak bus was never late. (I'm sure it some of the time) Last time I rode something other than Amtrak in the US, I ended up having to take a bus 30 miles out of the way to BART and get to San Francisco about an hour late. All to save $15 over Amtrak...then I had to pay $7 to get where I actually needed to go, so I save $8 and lost an extra hour. I would have preferred to take train #5 an be an hour late, I'd at last be one town over from my destination.
 
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How can you call the LD routes corridors when they frequently show up multiple hours late, or even if on time, in the middle of the night? Not to mention they're often slower than driving and certainly much slower than flying.

Couldn't you make the same argument against corridor and commuter trains?
 
I know that people don't like to or cannot drive or fly, so they take the train. I know the LD trains are used, I'm just not sure I would call them corridors if they only run once a day, are often late, and scheduling works out so sometimes trains are going through large cities in the middle of the night.
Couldn't you make the same argument against corridor and commuter trains?
Very much so; point taken. I was more talking about the first two points though. I do think Amtrak needs to invest a lot more in corridors, but of course that's difficult given the 750 mile rule. I just don't know if calling Chicago to San Francisco makes sense. Splitting it in Denver, sure! (I'm not advocating for the splitting of the CZ, just more frequent corridor service in places where it is viable).
 
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