As Americans fill trains, frustration grows

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - Looking up at a list of delayed trains at Boston's crowded South Station on a summer afternoon, Peter Pesis asks why passenger trains in the United States are so slow, so crowded and so prone to delays.

"This is not like Europe," sighed the 38-year-old Greek native who has lived in New York 15 years and often rides the nation's only high-speed train, Amtrak's Acela Express, between midtown Manhattan and Boston.

Rising costs of traveling by air and car, brought on by record oil prices, drew a record 2.8 million people onto America's cash-strapped passenger railway network in July, the largest of any single month in Amtrak's 37-year history and up nearly 14 percent from a year earlier.

But as passenger numbers grow, so too are complaints of overcrowding and delays.

<snip>

Passenger rail systems in Britain, France and Germany account for about 6 to 8 percent of total annual passenger travel miles. Amtrak carries less than 1 percent. Japan, with the world's busiest high-speed rail network, carries 18 percent.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1146958120080827?sp=true

[LisaM]

1. This should be one of Biden's issues

He is an Amtrak rider - let's hope he works to push through better service.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yeah, that's one reason I like him. And Mike Dukakis. nt

[LisaM]

5. I think all elected officials should be required to ride transit to work

at least once a week (at least, the ones who don't need security; it would slow the system down if Secret Service agents had to scope out every bus).

[Captain Hilts]

7. Bloomie rides the subway nearly every day. nt

[Marie2]

13. Yes, the elite can drive

while the rabble can use public transit.

??

Yours for civil rights, Marie.

[hedgehog]

2. I send kids east to Albany and west to Buffalo from the Syracuse

station. Amtrak has a schedule, but it gets interrupted at the pleasure of whoever dispatches the freight trains. Sometimes the train is held for half an hour a half mile from the station while the freights rumble through!

For a while there, we could always count on the East bound train being an hour late if it crossed the border at Niagara Falls. I don't know if the Customs delay was new or if it took Amtrak a while to figure out that it took an hour.

[Captain Hilts]

6. And Syr'cuse's Amtrak station was 'conveniently' moved out of town!!!

[enlightenment]

12. 12 years ago, my teenager spent over 12 hours aboard

an Amtrak passenger train - travelling from Denver to Grand Junction (a 3.5 hour trip by car).

I doubt it's improved since then and that's a crying shame.

[high density]

4. The Amtrak service between Boston and Portland, ME is growing like gangbusters

Ridership is up 28%, revenue up 33%.

[MetaTrope]

8. With all those crowds, nice to know DHS patrols are packing submachine guns

Even if they don't manage to hit any "terrorists"...they'll probably help lower the train crowding.

[ms liberty]

9. Al Sharpton owned this issue in '04, IMO...

As part of his platform, he proposed building a high-speed rail system like those found in Europe and Japan.

[cyr330]

10. It's the Repukes.

They have always underfunded Amtrak. They never gave Amtrak enough $$ to make big repairs and make capital expense purchases in order to succeed. It is well documented.

[dflprincess]

11. As with healthcare,

we'll probably get told that this is something where we can't copy what Europe does, but find an "uniquely American" solution. Which means nothing will get done - unless someone figures out how to make a big pile of money off it.

[qwlauren35]

14. I think we're lucky that the government has subsidized Amtrak all these years.

I can't imagine what kind of problems we'd be having in the Northeast Corridor if Metroliner service was gone.

There are a lot more people who depend on it than the national press reports.

A bullet train tying California together would be a fascinating proposition. Is there one between San Diego and Los Angeles?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Republicanites gripe about Amtrak getting a $1 billion subsidy annually,

but the airlines received a $35 billion bailout all at once after 9/11.

The Republicanites have taken their typical approach to public services: underfund something, run it badly, and then point to it as "proof" that government doesn't work.

[mwb970]

16. Europe seems to be ahead of us in every area.

Can we ever catch up? Personally I doubt it. Americans are too stupid, too ignorant and too religious to ever get anywhere. Our country has become pathetic in the eyes of the world, and of some of its own citizens, including me.