You say this, but you are replying to an article about a disaster that was basically caused by, and then made worse by private companies.
The problem is that Amtrak doesn't own the infrastructure ... that infrastructure has NOT been taken over by the government, but is owned by private railroads, and it is falling apart.
There aren't enough parallel tracks to be able to maintain schedules, because the private railroads aren't building them and are shutting some tracks down. The existing tracks are not being properly maintained; trains going into Richmond, VA, for example, have to slow down to a crawl because of the poor condition of the tracks. But it's CSX that is responsible for those tracks.
If the government can be blamed for _anything_, it's letting the railway owners fall down on their part of the bargain.
--scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't think they should do that either. Why doesn't Amtrack for example -- it is a government agency after all -- file _suit_ and force the railroads (who are its landlord, after all) to maintain its property? Amtrak got in a very bad deal when they stepped in to rescue the railroads (and aside from the fact that I do not think the government had any business doing it at all) they should have set a different tune to start with. Build up your property decently to start with if you want us to take it over. Why couldn't government learn from the earlier fiascos they have when they get into these messes? City of Chicago lost out very badly when they decided -- in their greed -- to 'municipalize' (tee hee, sly grin) the property of Chicago Rapid Transit Company, Lake Street Elevated Line, Jackson Park Elevated Line, the Loop Elevated Rail Road, the Boulevard Bus Company, and the Commercial Elevated Service (what is now called the North/Northwest/Ohare el train). No matter what rationale they give (we are nobler, purer, more honest, more utilit- arian, whatever than those other crooks) the fact remains that whatever the government gets its hands on turns to shit.I got a phone call yesterday from a lady who is a reporter (I assume) at one of my competitors, The New York Times, who had read my Editor's Note about the mess with Amtrak in the Georgia woods now going on three days. She demanded to know 'what railroad to you work for?, in other words what could you possibly know about anything? I told her I did not know very much about anything in life, but I damn sure would know to slowly and safely begin backing up all the trains caught there in that logjam one at a time until each of them had been able to reach a safe and convenient place where the passengers could be safely evacuated, properly medicated or otherwise pursed and sent on to their homes via aeroplane with my apologies for being such a screwed up outfit. And I am not a fan of air travel myself these days, given the gyrations one has to go through in the name of 'terrorism' to even get on the aeroplane. (Dump your possessions all over the floor where everyone can look at them, etc). But under the circumstances it would have worked. And I know there is a Greyhound Bus Station in Orlando. That's how I would have done it. And I wished her the best in their latest wrangle with the government which is attempting to find out who tattled on Mr. Bush so _that_ person can be severely punished, rather than Mr. Bush who needs the punishment. She terminated our call. PAT]