Save Amtrak

When I left New York last month for Madison, WI, I went via Amtrak.  No, not Delta or United.  Amtrak.
I had researched my getaway, which would occur after the culmination of several weeks’ preparation for a cross-country move.  I knew I would be fagged out physically, if not emotionally, and mentally and getting away from New York would mean that I would have to prepare myself for the new world of the Midwest and Wisconsin.  I felt that I needed rest and time for that.

Jets and airports don’t give you that kind of space while traveling. While the trip might take to an hour or two on average, it takes an additional two or three more hours to get to the airport and to stand in line with the rest of man- and womankind.  There are crowds at the ticket counters.  You’re moved along almost like cattle.  Everyone’s luggage now looks the same color–black–no matter what size, so there’s more of a possibility that someone will take your bag by mistake and play tug of war with you if your name isn’t on it or if you haven’t devised some secret tag or code for it.  You’re practically frisked upon check-in in some areas, especially if you have a one-way ticket.  It may be quicker to fly, but I remember how harried and worn-out I felt after every trip.  And on a trip this important to me, I didn’t want feel that way, but fresh and expectant.

Besides, getting there via rail seemed more straightforward and less expensive.  I tracked the online ticket prices for weeks, and they came down to $125 for a one way ticket the week I finally made a reservation.  By comparison, online air ticket brokers were charging upwards to nearly $400 for a one-way ticket that wasn’t a one-stop but in one case was a three-stop journey. All I had to do was make a reservation, and pick up my ticket at a ticket machine (on the day I left, there were only two people at the machines while everyone was crowded at the ticket counters at Penn Station.)  I could even check in my suitcase with a Red Cap.

My train would wend its way to Chicago after making several stops, and then I would transfer to a connecting bus (on the same ticket) that would take me to the University of Wisconsin student union in three hours.  I would see a lot of scenery, have my feet up while resting, have reading and listening to music time, and have breakfast and dinner served to me.  I was sold.

I have to admit that I’ve always liked trains.  I took commuter trains to work in the Peninsula and San Francisco when I did not have a car.  Much earlier, I took my first train ride to California from New Orleans in 1961 with my pregnant mother and her father-in-law. That was when vendors got on trains to sell sandwiches, comic books and candy, and waiters came to your train car with a gong or bell to announce lunch.  It was a long three days and two nights for my mother, made even longer when I sat on her Fifties style sunglasses.

Blacks had always used trains to get out of the South: to Harlem, to Kansas City, to Chicago, and at that time, to work in the defense and automobile industries in the West.  I don’t know how cheap it was then to get a ticket, but it allowed thousands to get out of the stifling rural serfdom to which they were assigned and for many, to make some real money.  

Well, times have changed.  Some blacks are returning to the South.  The Cold War has effectively ended, but in its stead, there’s the so-called war on terror.  The old passenger rail companies collapsed when more and more people came to rely more on cars and planes, but Amtrak is their heir and possibly, last descendant.  These days, it appears, people are looking for alternatives to the madness of traffic and check-in lines, just like I am.  And still, Red States are isolated when it comes to travel; it still takes hours to get to the nearest airport to go on vacations and business trips.  What remains are state-run or local bus lines, Greyhound or Trailways, or Amtrak.

But Bush wants to kill Amtrak.  

Now they say that if Amtrak gets rid of meals or sleepers on the trains, they will be able to survive.  However, meals are an important part of travel.  The meals served were hot, fairly good and well balanced, plus you could have dessert.  If you are traveling as a mother with small children, imagine what this means: it means a child’s plate geared to their palates, and food for adults.  It’s better than going to Burger King and have them ping-ponging for hours on sugar.  I didn’t have to worry about being car sick, either. Plus well-to-do as well as poor are forced to break bread with each other if there is a lack of seating in the dining car.  People are on their best behavior.  It’s not like going to a snack bar, with its glooey sandwiches and weak coffee.

And sleepers?  I think they are needed, especially for families with babies and toddlers and individuals who just want to be left alone on cross-country trips.  I liked watching the sun go down along the Hudson River and its strange `forts,’ I enjoyed having my feet up and reading and dozing.  But I had a seat mate who couldn’t find a window seat and shoved herself on me by saying imperiously that I had to make room for her. Then, to add insult to injury, she was restless and kept hitting me in her sleep, waking me several times.  The next time that I use Amtrak, I hope that I can get a sleeper, but they are over three hundred dollars more.  If they were half that amount, I think more people would use them.

And that’s what I think is the problem. Americans support Amtrak by riding the trains.  The coaches were full and the passengers were patient.  Yet Bush wants to kill the system by denying the basics of rail travel, calling them luxuries.  Despite travelers waiting one, two or three hours for enough coaches or coaches that work or being delayed because the right engineer hasn’t shown up.  Despite seats that can’t rise and locked bathrooms that are past repair–Americans support Amtrak.  I don’t doubt that if Amtrak had the money, it would be able to compete with the airline and with automobile travel industries.  Besides, there’s a smoking booth for those addicts who need to light up on a nonsmoking train.  This is just like the breakup of the phone system to me.  Some monopolies do work; and rail travel does do its job; if not for a bigger bang for a buck.

Bush wants to kill Amtrak by September.   Write or call your reps, especially you folks in Red States.  Don’t allow it to happen.