The Travel Detective

Amtrak: American Embarrassment And Cause Of Airport Overcrowding

Locations in this article:  Brussels, Belgium Paris, France

Amtrak An American Embarrassment And Cause of Airport OvercrowdingLast week marked the 40th anniversary of Amtrak, and Peter has some things to say about our national rail system.

Read on for the Travel Detective’s take on Amtrak and what needs to happen if it’s going to survive.

It’s hard to believe we’re marking the 40th anniversary of Amtrak. What are we celebrating?

Are we celebrating the demise of the American rail system?

Are we celebrating the fact that Congress has never given Amtrak enough money to operate appropriately and efficiently?

Our train system in America is an embarrassment. Compare our trains to Japan, to France, to other parts of Asia. We pale in comparison to what the Chinese are doing.

Learn more about train travel worldwide in our Train Travel section.

I once did my radio show from the high-speed trains in France that averaged about 160mph—not a single glass even vibrated.

Train Seats - Doesn't The Fact The French Are Winning Piss Off Red-State America?People use those trains to commute every single day. My good friend lives in Brussels and commutes to Paris every day on the train.

So many states in America have refused federal money to improve the infrastructure on short-haul and long-haul train travel. Why can’t we do this?

In 2011, we don’t have enough state governors who are willing to invest in high-speed train travel between major cities and hub cities. If we had a working train system, we wouldn’t have airline delays. Our airports wouldn’t be gridlocked.

Let’s use the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston as an example. The Acela is not a high-speed train. The Acela gets to about 86 mph for 30 miles and if it went the 31st mile it would derail because the tracks are so bad.

Amtrak doesn’t even own most of the tracks. The freight lines own the tracks, which is why Amtrak can’t maintain an on-time performance level. Amtrak trains always have to pull over to the side to let some 100-car freight train go lumbering on by. If there were better high-speed trains and rails, all those commuter flights would cease to exist.

Learn more: Florida’s High-Speed Rail Project Canceled By Republican Governor’s Opposition

And guess what? Commuter flights take up as much radar space, as much gate space and as much runway space as a 747. Minimizing commuter flights would improve everything. Governors of our states need to figure out that if the federal government is offering you money to improve your rail system, it’s a win-win for everybody.

Every year somebody tries to take more money away from Amtrak. They are now at the point where they literally can’t operate. We can’t let that happen. We have the concept of high-speed train; we have the need for commuter rail; we have the intelligence, too. Now, we just have to get all three in the same room.

Happy birthday, Amtrak. Let’s hope you make it to 41.

By Peter S. Greenberg for PeterGreenberg.com.

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