If Amtrak is the national rail operator of the United States, then it should serve the United States. Not just the Northeast Corridor. Not just the West Coast. For too long, the national agency has been serving only a handful of our population: people who live and work in major coastal cities and rely on rail for daily commuting — you and I both know the dominating voting demographic there. Having lived in Southern California, I can tell you that Amtrak is the best way to get between San Diego and Los Angeles unless you enjoy wasting away in traffic. When we lived in Fredericksburg, Va., Amtrak was a fantastic option for stress-free trips to D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. All of that said, relegating Amtrak to mere commuting purposes is a disservice to the rail and the taxpayers who fund it.The challenge is in the how best serve the United States. There has never been a coherent business model for covering the national network. The Northeast Corridor get their rolling gated community in the form of Acela trains with premium and business class seating, as well as Northeast Regional trains offering business and coach class seating, and no honoring of the commuter train tickets operated by regional authorities. The regional operators in North Carolina, Chicagoland, and California have to come up with state money to offer train service that is reasonably comfortable and dependable.
The national network exists on paper, in the form of a few long-distance trains that attempt to offer both a day train linking smaller cities and an overnight sleeping car service. Ms McCulley proposes a new perspective on the sleeping car service.
When Amtrak started competing with American Airlines and Delta, it lost sight of what makes it entirely different: the experience. We went from riding the rails to admire the natural beauty, connect with our travel companions, and allow the travel to be as much of the experience as the destination. Airlines are all about loading a bunch of people in a tube and getting them from one place to another as quickly as possible. Trains will never be able to outperform planes if those are the metrics of success. Rather, the ultimate customer experience for Amtrak makes the journey the highlight. Amtrak's true competitor is the cruise industry.The political economy of government-sponsored cruise trains might be challenging. Let's think more carefully about modal choice. The regional trains, particularly if they have free rein to 110, are time-competitive with flying or driving up to 500 miles. The long distance trains currently appeal to cruise-minded vacationers and people afraid to fly, although they'll never touch the airlines for speed or your motor vehicle for flexibility, and with timekeeping the way it is, they're not competitive. I submit, dear reader, that transportation companies, whether operating planes, buses, or trains, have more of a business opportunity winning motorists over, rather than going after the other modes for the relatively few passengers that aren't driving.
People pay thousands of dollars to board a ship and sail from place to place. They only get a few hours in each port before it's back on the ship and off to the next destination. Everything is on the ship: food, indoor and outdoor entertainment, shopping, spas, and specialized programming for children. The goal of cruising is to take people on something of a loop with a few stops on the way and deposit them a week later, happier than they were before.
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