Josh Keady- Unnumbered entry: Well no duh.

I’m reading a little article from the AP about Amtrak losing about $32 for every passenger that rides on its trains.  Now I’m no economist, but I’m not an idiot either.  Why don’t people ride on Amtrak?

The same reason that they don’t ride the freakin’ bus: they charge a lot of money to get somewhere really slowly.  Kate and I are planning to go to the bay area in a few weeks and I thought it’d be nice to take a train.  Well it would be except just to get from Albany to San Francisco and back would be $500 for two coach seats and it’d be an 18 hour trip.  Yeah.

So why don’t people like to ride Amtrak?  Because a bus is only slightly less annoying and about 100 dollars cheaper, because a plane is a million times faster and still less expensive (if the airline industry’s model is beating you that badly, what does it tell you?!), and mostly, because I’ve got a car, motherfuckers, and I can get down there for half the cost in half the time.

I mean, really folks.  I should be able to get on a train in Portland for a hundred dollars, travel at around 150 mph, and get to San Francisco in five or six hours.  I’d pay $7.00 for a sandwich and Dr. Pepper, watch a bunch of TV shows on my laptop in a reasonably comfortable seat, and if we left at 7 AM, we’d be pulling in to the bay area at around noon, just in time for lunch.

Is that so unreasonable?  It sounds like fucking utopia to me and I think that’s kind of sad.  We wouldn’t have to stop 15 times because there’s nothing to stop for between Portland and San Francisco.  There isn’t!  Vancouver B.C. -> Seattle -> Portland -> San Francisco -> Los Angeles -> San Diego.  There.  There’s your high-speed west coast line.  Build those SIX stations, connect them with standard gauge rail and you’re golden.  I realize that it’s a significant engineering, political, and monetary challenge, but sheesh, I’m going to be causing a lot of pollution and using my fair share of gasoline driving down there with just me and Kate in the car.  Build up a good high speed rail service on the west coast and I promise you that you won’t be losing no 32 bucks a passenger.