Tikkabik

An interesting and somewhat depressing article in today's New York Times about Amtrak and the Acela, Amtrak's high-speed train service that runs (or more specifically, ran) between Washington, DC and Boston, Mass.

Executive summary: Amtrak had, in the mid-90s, counted on the Acela line to make it money. It hasn't, and the reasons why are myriad, but government bureaucracy, poor planning, bad design and mismanagement are three major factors.

I'm a big believer in high-speed rail, but I've never traveled in Europe or Japan so I've nothing to compare my experience on the Acela. But it's patently obvious from the moment you step in any railroad station that Amtrak services that the company is caught between a rock and a hard place. It's a government-subsidized business expected to run as a profitable organization. But the government doesn't give Amtrak the freedom it needs to be profitable, and the government doesn't give Amtrak enough funding to offer the service it's expected -- in fact, mandated -- to provide. What you're left with is the worst of both worlds.

It's obviously not a problem with a simple solution. Amtrak is up against airlines, which have over the past four years proven almost incapable of working without government bailouts themselves, and an automobile-dependent culture that's in a such spread-out geography that developing cohesive and efficient public transportation is almost an impossibility except in the most densely populated urban areas.

One way or t'other, I hope the Acela will continue well into the future. Some of the most beautiful scenery you'll see in the United States, big, comfortable seats, AC jacks at each seat location. If you're commuting between New York and Boston, or New York and Washington, it's a terrific way to work while you travel that won't make you feel like a sardine, and it's a hell of a lot more elegant than a Chinatown bus.