George,

I have ridden the trains of this nation and other nations since the time I could walk.

I have watched the benign neglect of the U.S. rail system that was once the envy of the world. Particularly the passenger business.

I can remember the 20th Century Limited with red carpeting on the platform at New York's Grand Central Station so oversold, it would have ten "extras"; extra trains leaving five minutes apart. All 20th Century Limiteds. The same with the Pennsylvania's "Broadway Limited".

If you had predicted, in the 1930s and early 1940s, that one day the New York Central or the Pennsylvania Railroad would end up bankrupt and in receivership, you probably would have been hauled off to a "rubber room"!

The reasons are many, but essentially a combination of greed and complacency became the dominant philosophies of the boards and management of the major railroads, particularly in the Eastern U.S. Instead of upgrading their tracks and equipment, using new technology,they continued to pay dividends and bonuses even as revenues fell and profits became non-existent. It was as if there wasn't a competent manager to be found.

The blame game was intact, however. If only the labor unions were not around, if only they could get rid of firemen in their locomotives, if only the government imposed rules were not in effect, if only they could return to the days when railroads operated as a government within a government, if only they had the "subsidies" given trucking companies and the airline industry. The railroads refined whining to an art form.

Then, it was the passenger business that caused delays in shipping freight. "That's the ticket, get rid of the passengers" and when they put brakemen in the cars to verbally abuse the passengers and made rail travel a nightmare experience, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, but the great railroads still went belly up and the blame game became even more strident!

Japan and Europe have great passenger service; Japan has privately owned passenger rail service....they seem to all be profitable. Japan has made a huge investment with their national rail system with the Shinkansen(AKA "Bullet Train") traveling at speeds exceeding 150MPH. Europe has rail service from Norway to Spain..London to Istanbul....Now with rail service under the English Channel, you can go from London to Paris in a few hours. One can board a train in Paris and wake up in Rome,never change trains.

"But, Europe is small, distances far less than crossing the U.S." is the common excuse for not building regional rail service that could connect,by region,the entire U.S.... If our government can find the wherewithal to fund a useless war, at a cost of 3.5 BILLION per week, doesn't it make sense to build and operate a first rate, safe, economical rail system to move millions? Unfortunately, I know the answer to my above question, it makes sense but it probably will never happen.

Trains run on tracks and can't be diverted into buildings! Trains make airline travel a mode more suited for animals than humans! AMTRAK is a joke, so underfunded; a political pariah incapable of ever being successful. It is dying a slow painful death. Even the trains like our own AMTRAK Crescent could move more people if they had the equipment and the restrictions imposed by the mother railroads (Norfolk and Southern and CSX) were alleviated.

An example, the AMTRAK Cardinal must switch off the fast tracks of the Norfolk and Southern at Orange,Virginia and come through the woods, with no stops, to Charlottesville, adding almost a half hour to the journey...Norfolk and Southern does not want another passenger train delaying their revenue freight business.(although it is rumored that a crossover switching arrangement is in the works to put the Cardinal back on its westbound tracks here in C-Ville...stay tuned!)

So, RIGHT ON Meredith, it is long past the time when we should use our railroad assets as a great people mover and once again make rail travel a priority.

Harry Tenney (electronic mail, January 14, 2004)