THERE'S AN OPPORTUNITY, IF PASSENGER RAIL OPERATORS WOULD PURSUE IT.

The short-haul air carriers are in trouble.

A shortage of pilots is clobbering small airports and regional airlines across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Airline pilots are getting hired by bigger carriers, forcing smaller airports to offer fewer flights, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Some commercial airlines, such as SkyWest Airlines, are ceasing operations in a number of small cities altogether.

I issued a call for further study.

There's got to be a research project for somebody on the economics of a relatively short regional flight with no more than a bus load of passengers on board.  A lot of those regional carriers depend on the so-called essential air service subsidy to cover what the code-sharing partner carrier doesn't.  There aren't many amenities on those regional planes in any event.

Meanwhile, the people inside and outside government are too wedded either to high-end bullet trains or local rapid transit to consider supplementing the regional air carriers with regional passenger trains.

Ask and you might receive.  "SkyWest Airlines wants to end most of its Essential Air Service flying by June 10."  The details are in the article, it is the map I wish to address.

Several of the cities shown are along secondary passenger train routes that were mostly freight-only by the coming of Amtrak.  They suggest, though some creative thinking on the part of the regional rail operators, such as some St. Louis and Detroit trains (preferably more than two a day), or a Rockford - Beloit - Janesville - Madison service connecting with the Twin Cities service and continuing to Eau Claire.  That southern Kansas corridor was once upon a time the speedway for Santa Fe's premium passenger trains.  It's currently inactive, although adding a few regional trains could be cheaper than propping up those puddle-jumpers, that is, if pilots can be found to fly them.