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Amtrak owns about 3/4 of the tracks between Boston and DC, so those will be their most reliable. That’s what I use it for the most. From my experience, that’s a
by LeafItAlone 3y ago
Amtrak owns about 3/4 of the tracks between Boston and DC, so those will be their most reliable. That’s what I use it for the most. From my experience, that’s also more expensive than other trips, but I haven’t done an extensive comparison.
Elsewhere, on tracks that are owned by others, especially commercial companies, Amtrak may not get priority, so things get dicier.
- AlbertCory 3y agoit's probably unacceptable for Amtrak to just say "hey, we can't give good service on this route, and it's unprofitable anyway, so we're ending it." Congress would then say, "well, then, we're ending your subsidies." It would be an interesting exercise to see if they could be profitable, albeit smaller.
- ghaff 3y agoIf Amtrak were a normal business they’d probably run the Northeast Corridor route and just shut everything else down.
- bombcar 3y agoNEC, Surfliner, maybe a few others. All the long distance routes save the auto train would be cancelled leaving only the commuter trains. If it has sleeper cars, it loses money. However Amtrak serves a portion of the population that are in areas not serviced by much else and I’m perfectly fine with subsidizing that outright. But that may be because choo choo go choo.
- AlbertCory 3y agoYeah, I think you & ghaff have the right idea. But even Reagan didn't touch this one. Much political pain, not much gain.