More people are riding the train.

According to a recent report, more people are riding the rails again -- and Amtrak is one of the main beneficiaries.   Gee, I wonder why?  Maybe it's because airline performance continues to get worse every year -- in spite of the massive, 'industry-saving' airline bailout that our so-called conservative Congress passed after 9/11.  It's questionable how much good the bailout did; obviously, some benefited more than others.    Regardless, air travelers now face long check-ins, ridiculously invasive security measures, and longer trips to and from airports thanks to worsening traffic in many locations.  None of these changes have made us any safer, but they've made it look like the industry and government are doing something to protect people. 

Contrast this situation with train travel.  There is no security screen other than the police at every station, and the cross-jurisdiction Amtrak police monitoring for suspicious behavior at stations.  You leave from the heart of downtown, and you arrive in the heart of downtown - no long commutes to and from airports on the outskirts of town.  No absurdly long lines.  You can bring as much liquid and food as you want.  Hell, you can even bring alcohol on board, and you don't have to hide any of it.  The on-time performance is comparable to trains (and the Northeast Corridor performs even better).  What's there not to like?

Price, for one.  It's expensive to take the train.  That's because running a railroad is expensive in general.  And despite complaints that Amtrak is an expensive, inefficient organization, compare their subsidy with the built-in American subsidies for gasoline, roads, airports, airport security and infrastructure.  Post-9/11, look at the tax increases on the flying public and the amount the government handed out to the airlines to bail them out.  Suddenly, that 1.3 billion a year to subsidize Amtrak doesn't look so expensive.  And that ticket price you pay makes a lot more sense.  [If you want to find out about how the automobile took over in Detroit and elsewhere in the U.S., click here.   Don't worry - there's no conspiracy theory at that link.  Those are here. ]

Sadly, Amtrak is a stagnant, accidentally-created company that has suffered through historically-haphazard leadership and constantly-shifting government mandates for decades.  Congress allows it to subsist, but does not invest in its growth.  So the company can only tread water instead of trying to actually build out infrastructure and services on the scale of airlines.  And it shows.  Service outside the NE Corridor is often mediocre, if not outright bad. 

Yet ridership is up 54% in the Midwest, 24% in Cali and 20% in the Northeast.  Go figure. 

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