A news update from NARP about Amtrak notes that:
The railroad is pressing all its available equipment into service from today through Sunday, running extra trains in the Pacific Northwest, California, downstate Illinois, and Michigan. In the Northeast Corridor, as in past years, Amtrak is even borrowing commuter coaches from New Jersey Transit and MARC to provide extra capacity between New York and Washington, and is running additional Northeast Regionals between Boston and Virginia points, plus adding cars to regularly scheduled Regionals. Many of those extra trains are already selling out. But while Amtrak can add a coach here and there to its national network trains, the vast majority of stations will be served by the same number of trains, with roughly the same number of seats and rooms, over Thanksgiving as they are the rest of the year.
Thanksgiving is Amtrak's busiest holiday travel event of the year; the NARP piece notes that the media is giving it little notice, instead focusing on air and car travel issues. Which might be just as well, given this paradox:
An active member of our Association called us today asking if we could run a campaign to get more media outlets to mention trains as a choice for avoiding at least some Thanksgiving travel stress. But as it stands now, people encouraged to turn to Amtrak would be met with those dreaded words: “SOLD OUT.” The railroad can barely accommodate current levels of demand—any further advertisement would only serve to make America’s passenger trains victims of their own success, and turn away scores more travelers than they already do! At present, we are at a frustrating point where train service’s popularity is greater than it has been in decades- so much that the only limitation on growth is the fact that the current network is operating nearly at capacity. We don’t need more advertisements, we just need more trains!
emphasis added
Amtrak continues to see ridership grow year after year, despite perennial attempts by Conservatives to remove it from the budget and cannibalize the remains. The media seldom pays attention to anything except for accidents, bad service stories, Congressional hearings designed to put "America's Railroad" in the worst possible light, and outright dismissal of Amtrak because it doesn't run super-duper high-speed trains.
There IS some good news - back in October I posted about new equipment coming on line for Amtrak. (Pictures, videos and links to more information.) Where better service is available, where more frequent service is available, ridership grows - and so does the local economy in places served by Amtrak. Tie the service into other transportation modes, as Bruce McF just posted about, and the synergy extends even farther.
Example: I was flying two days ago to Texas, and got stuck at Washington National overnight when weather cancelled all flights to Dallas-Fort Worth. There's a Washington Metro Stop just outside the Terminal - I and my traveling companion used the opportunity to ride four stops up the blue line to visit Arlington National Cemetery. (If our feet had held out, we could have seen more of D.C.) The Metro could have taken us right to Union Station and Amtrak. Amtrak does go through our destination in Texas - but doesn't currently have a stop there even if tickets had been available. (Plus, the airlines managed to put our luggage - if not us - on the last flight to DFW that day. We ended up chasing it, a day behind.)
I suspect Amtrak ridership is up in part because airline service has become an endurance contest. More seats packed in tighter, luggage fees that keep going up, fewer amenities (unless you're willing to pay)… and the TSA. We got caught up by a consequence of our flight getting cancelled. We'd picked up a jug of maple syrup for a gift inside the secured zone at our departure airport, and it would have been fine for the rest of the trip. When we hit D.C. we exited to the main concourse, and then found we couldn't bring the syrup back inside when we got a rescheduled flight. We couldn't check it with our luggage either, since that had gone ahead without us. I admit the TSA agents were very helpful - but there was nothing they could do about the regulations.
Since many Kossacks will be on the road this holiday (if you aren't already), I suspect there will be more than a few travel horror stories in the next few days. While you're coping with the inevitable delays and annoyances, take a little time to think about the alternatives we could have for a relatively small investment of public funding, and consider dropping a line to your Congress Critters.
We can do better.