Train-travel nostalgia can't derail modern economic reality

You gotta wonder why the newspaper of record for Charleston and, indeed, the entire Lowcountry, would run a windy June 11 op-ed by Caroline Abels, the editor of a 7,500 circulation quarterly that serves only Southern Vermont on passenger trains.

Did a lone writer's romantic vision of riding the rails and viewing America's natural beauty coast-to-coast so captivate the editors that they simply couldn't resist? If so, perhaps The Post and Courier should establish a fiction section to accommodate articles such as this one. Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to this nation's passenger rail service has already concluded that it is, to all intents and purposes, dead. It's time to shoot Amtrak with a silver bullet and pound a stake into its iron horse heart to put it out of its, and our, misery.

Amtrak has never turned a profit since the federal government took it over in 1971 and began shoveling tens of billions of dollars in subsidies its way. The only routes that actually do slightly better than break even are in the Boston-New York-Washington, D.C., corridor, which is little more than a really long commuter line. Yet, the writer lobbies for even greater subsidies.

Amtrak is slow, unreliable and lacks any significant creature comforts. I know. I made the mistake of taking Amtrak from New York City to — well, what do you know? — Vermont one winter not long ago. The ride took 13 hours and much of the countryside we passed through was not at all scenic. You don't put railroad tracks in the good part of town. The journey ended with several railroad workers taking axes to the train's doors, which had frozen shut, to allow us to disembark.

The writer bemoans America's failure to emulate Europe and Asia which she contends offer superlative, high speed service. First, the comparison is not even close to fair. For example, Japan and France — both known for their high speed rail services — have much denser populations than the United States and major hub cities, critical to profitable rail operation, that are much closer together. Japan has some 873 persons per square mile; France, 287. The United States comes in at only 30 persons per square mile. There are vast areas of this country where nobody lives and/or nobody wants to go. An educated guess might be that few Americans would welcome a lengthy train trip to Wyoming or South Dakota, two destinations the writers seem to think would be ideal as travel destinations.

The reality is that in the U.S. trains are extremely important for moving freight. They haven't been a significant factor in moving people since around the 1940s, when air travel became feasible for many Americans and the 1950s when the interstate highway system opened up huge new travel opportunities for motorists.

The romance of the rails may linger on, and can be satisfied for train buffs at any number of theme parks and scenic attractions where they can enjoy the clickety-clack of steel wheels on steel rails and the mournful moan of a steam whistle in the night.

But as a profitable industry and a major mover of people, well, that train has left the station.

BILL FARLEY

Night Writer Editorial Services

Heathland Way

Mount Pleasant