Why AMTRAK is practically dead

I live in Portland, Oregon, whose Union Station may be the most beautiful operational train station in the country. I can hop on a train and go up to Seattle and get off in what may be one of the dumpiest train stations in the entire world. Nine out of ten Greyhound bus terminals are like the Elysian Fields by comparison.

If something isn't done, I'm afraid that passenger trains may disappear from the face of the land. Now, normally, I'm all for letting the market rule and if that would mean the end of passenger train travel, what would be would be.

However, there is something about traveling by train. It's more leisurely than either driving or flying. I mean, I can drive to Seattle in three-and-a-half hours, but the train ride takes about five. Still, I don't mind. I can alternate between reading and looking out the train window to see an America that's hidden from my eyes on the freeway. It seems like when people design freeways, they try to find the most boring route between two points.

AMTRAK turns out to have the market sense of a dildo. While the train ride to Seattle takes place pretty much during the day, many of the other routes happen to go through the most beautiful parts of their routes overnight. Combine this with the fact that trains frequently pull into their destinations at something like 3 or 4 a.m. and you have little reason to go by train.

Another problem is that places you'd think would be a prime train destination, such as Las Vegas, don't even have an AMTRAK terminal. Instead, you have to get off somewhere else and take a bus ride into Sin City, probably from somewhere in California.

Oh well, I suspect our train system will be one of the next terrorist targets of choice, and that'll probably reduce ridership to the point where we'll lose AMTRAK entirely, but it sure would be nice to see the line's management try a little harder for the traveler's buck.

Of course, another problem is that the cutthroat airline industry has made traveling by plane frequently cheaper than going by train, and you get to your destination with much more time to visit, and for business travelers it's a total nonstarter, so it might be a totally lost cause.

This is too bad, because trains really are the way to look America in the eye. I've traveled by train in Europe and it's fabulous. It's too bad we seemingly can't have a similar experience here.