Amtrak: A Harmful Government Program?

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

By: Michael Lewis

Posted 04/20/06

10:26 AM

Last week, HUMAN EVENTS published its list of the 10 Most Harmful Government Programs. The biggest scam known to mankind as Social Security topped the list as the most harmful, egregiously unconstitutional program. While at the time I wholeheartedly agreed with Social Security's ranking on the Top 10 list, I hereby cast my vote for Amtrak.

Flying to Reagan National Airport from Raleigh can sometimes be costly, so I decided to do what my friends from the Northeast do -- I decided to take the train from Durham, N.C., to Washington's Union Station. Not only was it half the price of a plane ticket, but I had never been on a train and thought that it might be fun to see the countryside from a different perspective. For a while, it was nice to see rural North Carolina and Virginia's small-town America from the window. It was interesting to see the landscape change from rural to urban and back again. However, the novelty wore off quickly.

I had heard Saturday that train service between New York and Florida had resumed after fixing a distressed railroad bridge in Selma, N.C. I fully expected the six-hour ride to Washington to last six hours. Instead, the departure for my nine-hour ordeal on Amtrak was first delayed, with an hour spent idling before the "fixed bridge" over a creek in Selma. While Amtrak's slogan is "I want to get on," I simply could not wait to get off

Story

 

[Rafi]

By: Michael LewisPosted 04/20/06

10:26 AM

Last week, HUMAN EVENTS published its list of the 10 Most Harmful Government Programs. The biggest scam known to mankind as Social Security topped the list as the most harmful, egregiously unconstitutional program. While at the time I wholeheartedly agreed with Social Security's ranking on the Top 10 list, I hereby cast my vote for Amtrak.

Flying to Reagan National Airport from Raleigh can sometimes be costly, so I decided to do what my friends from the Northeast do -- I decided to take the train from Durham, N.C., to Washington's Union Station. Not only was it half the price of a plane ticket, but I had never been on a train and thought that it might be fun to see the countryside from a different perspective. For a while, it was nice to see rural North Carolina and Virginia's small-town America from the window. It was interesting to see the landscape change from rural to urban and back again. However, the novelty wore off quickly.

I had heard Saturday that train service between New York and Florida had resumed after fixing a distressed railroad bridge in Selma, N.C. I fully expected the six-hour ride to Washington to last six hours. Instead, the departure for my nine-hour ordeal on Amtrak was first delayed, with an hour spent idling before the "fixed bridge" over a creek in Selma. While Amtrak's slogan is "I want to get on," I simply could not wait to get off

Story

Holy cow.

Before we all start bashing conservatives, let me just come right out and say that this kind of ideology and rhetoric is not representative of all conservatives, myself included. While I wholeheartedly sympathize with what Michael Lewis endured on what I'm assuming was the Carolinian, we all know that that kind of delay was largely an exception to the rule on that stretch. That blog entry is misinformed on so many levels; I wish he had done some real research into the matter before spouting off like he did. I understand his frustrations, but really... come on, man, some of that was just seething with hatred, twisting many truths (and falsifying a few others).

<sigh>

 

[AmtrakWPK]

His mind was made up before he started. Don't bother trying to confuse him with the facts. He wouldn't recognize truth if it bit him on the a$$. Which is apparently sitting on his shoulders. If he had supported Amtrak they wouldn't have printed it anyway.

 

[EmpireBuilder1976]

What a hateful person/article. Unfortunately people like him only serve to keep Amtrak at its current level. They either have never ridden the train and make unfounded judgements against rail travel, or they have a bad experience and use that as an argument for scrapping Amtrak.

Alot of people just don't seem to understand the need for stable and proper funding for Amtrak. If the government would have been pumping the proper amount of money into Amtrak and passenger railroad infrastructure since it formed Amtrak, just think about what a strong, fast and efficient rail service we would have today. Heck, by now they might actually own all of their own track on LD trains!

 

[Sam Damon]

It is useful to read stuff by people like this, if nothing else because it enhances your "reality map." Those of us here on this forum would significantly disagree with this individual. This does not make that individual necessarily stupid, incompetent, or an evil person. Reading what someone like that writes helps us to formulate the factual arguments for a national intercity passenger railroad. It also draws our attention to weak points in our current arguments.

That's why, if a liberal, you should be periodically scanning sites like NewsBusters; likewise, if a conservative, one should scan Daily Kos. You do this not to necessarily inflame your own opinion -- but rather to find out what the other side is thinking, and alert yourself to possible trends. This way, you are prepared when the material comes out, instead of simply reacting to it.

 

[Rick]

Simply put, Micheal Lewis can kiss my ass........

 

[Boxcar]

His mind was made up before he started. Don't bother trying to confuse him with the facts.  He wouldn't recognize truth if it bit him on the a$$.  Which is apparently sitting on his shoulders.  If he had supported Amtrak they wouldn't have printed it anyway.

I agree Amtrak WPK. This man probably has a class A personality and is always on the fast track. He may have been used to the Redeye flights and thought it woul be nice to travel by rail and obviously became bored quickly. Sorry Buddy.....There are no "Bullet" trains in the US like Japan and Europe. Next time take the Bus and leave the train to Us. Then you would really have a gripe coming.

Also, I'm a conserative that is very much in favor of LD train travel and disagree with the present atmosphere in Congress over the future of Amtrak. I also never thought when I was young that I would ever collect a dime of Social security and Franklin D. Roosevelt was a great man but wrong on SS. Thank God the nation thought his idea was good.

I have a good retirement from a Telecom company but without SS it would be tough. Too all you young people out there...THANK YOU and I pray it is still around for your retirement when the time comes.... :unsure:

BD

 

[RailFanLNK]

I've got an idea that will save Amtrak. Sub-contract everything out to Hallliburton. I mean.....Halliburton is in the food business right? Halliburtion is also in the waste water business right? (they can clean the poop out of the big toilet tanks) They sell fuel don't they? (they can have the contracts to fuel all the trains everywhere in the US) They have cleaning people too! (they can clean the trains inside and out) And then, they can mess with the paperwork......make billions and make Amtrak look like they had a net profit of $60 Billion, Cheney and Gang will say that Amtrak pays for itself and we (all of us on this forum) will have trains to ride on for the rest of our lives if the conservatives are in power!!!

 

[RailFanLNK]

Boxcar Dummy and others....SS will be around. My girlfriend works there and every single person who transfers or quits (or gets fired) no one gets rehired. They are working them to death. They are thinking about shutting the doors one day a week to the public so they can get caught up since they are so short staffed. The public will love walking up to Social Security and finding the doors locked on a weekday. But....thats smaller government for ya! What is in dire consequences is Medicare. THAT is what this adminstration should be dealing with. Its going to go under soon.

 

[George Harris]

First, I will say after seeing "six hour trip turned into a nine hour ordeal" I did not bother to read the story, and have no intention of doing so. I see no reason to endure his "poor me things didn't go perfectly, so the gubmint should kill the whole thing" rant. If he has never experienced greater that three hour delays in flying, he has not traveled much.

There are plenty of railroad systems in this world that do have much better on-time performances than Amtrak, however they spend a lot more on rail than we do in the US to make it happen. To make it real simple, unless and until we are willing to invest the cash necessary to ensure reliability, we won't have it.

George