Oh pulleeeese!

Most Amtrak operating employees were once employed by the freight railroads. They know all too well what it was like - but were smart enough to find something better. They are also smart enough to know that trains (freight or passenger) are useless unless moving; not waiting around for some dispatcher to finish taking a powder, or some brainless MBA to get out of the way and let 'em run.

Fact is we didn't pass a single freight in either direction from Sparks to Roseville. The two Zephers and a couple of snowplows were the only things up there. Still, with no one in front of it, eastbound #6 still didn't get up to the snow until almost dark. And we waited for TWC and were given speed restrictions for no apparent reason, repeatedly. We moved the best after we got into the snow (and behind a plow) - go figure!

So who do you think the world was revolving around anyway? Bumbles? That dispatcher's world certainly wasn't revolving around his job either. And so what if the world did revolve around Amtrak? Amtrak is a UP customer the same as any other shipper. And if UP's world doesn't revolve around its customers, it ain't long for this world as a viable business. I think they must have forgotten to teach that anymore in MBA school. Maybe they never did - maybe it was just plain old common sense. Now when was the last time anyone saw any of that in an MBA!

Before you whine the old tired whine about how unrenumerative Amtrak's payments to the railroads are, they are in fact, based on the railroad industry's own "average avoidable cost" figures (they don't supply any capital and therefore don't deserve any return on it). Besides, other railroads such as BNSF, generally seem to find plenty of incentive in what Amtrak pays to do a fairly good job of schedule keeping; so why doesn't UP. Did I hear someone say "Dog in the Manger"?

Remember, the landmark law that created the "National Railroad Passenger Corporation" was meant only to relieve private industry of a public financial burden. We DID NOT ever relieve any common carrier of the duty to run passenger trains, which duty dates clear back to the beginning.

We aren't going to, either! So UP can do itself a favor, and the public too; by just accepting that fact, and run the trains on schedule. In fact, if they ran all their trains on a regular, predictable and properly choreographed schedule, they would find much more capacity in the trackage they already have, and the willing happy customers to fill it. They then would not have to cry and beg at the public trough for free capital money, as they are now loudly doing, even as they continue to screw the public.

Do they teach about "Not biting the hand that feeds you" in MBA school?

Probably not!

OPB