Rick Steele Wrote:
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> The problem Hank, is that railroads are no longer
> part of the American Psyche.
>
> When we had decent passenger service, people
> thought about trains, because Grandpa and Grandma
> would use them to come out for a visit or the
> individual could ride them to Uncle Elmer and Aunt
> Phoebe's farm for a couple of weeks in the summer.
>
>
> Amtrak changed all that. Because of chronic
> underfunding and the lack of a national will for
> passenger service, the people who used to equate
> trains with travel no longer think about them.
> With Amtrak, this is very understandable.
>
> I live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, we have poor to
> nonexistent intercity bus service, no airline
> service (as in zero) and, despite being a terminal
> for Both UP and BNSF, no passenger train service.
> So if you want to go by train,you drive to Denver
> or LaJunta Colorado. If you want to fly, you go
> to Denver International Airport. If you want to
> take the bus... Put out your thumb and good luck.
>
> This is the State Capitol. Of course, there is no
> Passenger Train Service in the entire state.
>
> If you want to see an (inter)national will for
> passenger trains, go to the EU or the UK. The
> trains are clean and fast. Please don't tell me
> about Europe being small. I can take a train from
> Berlin to Paris in less than 6 hours and the
> speedometer in the lounge cars pegs at 200 kmph.
> This is just an Inter City Express train (ICE) and
> not the really high speed Eurostar trains. These
> trains are fast, clean and efficient. Amazingly
> enough, new Eurostar routes are coming on line.
>
> I know that we have a "Unique" situation in the
> USA. The most unique thing is that instead of
> contributing to the most fuel and energy efficient
> method of transport, we are trying to fix highways
> which per ton mile use way more fuel than a
> railroad would ever think of using.
>
> So it is not surprising that people complain about
> those noisy, stinky old trains. They are just
> blocking the road that they want to travel down,
> or waking them up in the motels across the tracks
> at night. It's because trains are nothing to them
> but something that "Interferes" with their quality
> of life.
>
> These vocal idiots have no idea of how much the
> railroad makes their quality of life better and
> brings them goods less expensively than any other
> mode of transportation, save barge.
>
> But look at the bright side, if the D&S shuts down
> (I'll bet it doesn't), Just look at all the
> equipment available for the C&TS...
>
> Rick
Very true. What changed it was modern aviation. People get on an airplane and days or weeks of travel are done within hours. Everything on passenger trains of the 40s migrated in some ways to airplanes. Even the 1st class service migrated to airplane 1st class. People still expect the same service. Also, an airplane if full is the most efficient way to transport them. However not the most enjoyable! Why is it that people are so happy after getting soot and cinders on the D&S or C&T and unhappy after a fast, modern airplane ride??
There's also a stark difference between Durango and Chama these days. Locals in Chama love the railroad and view it as their train. Not so much in Durango. How easy is it to do some local pr work? However it's very obvious that the D&S is somone's personal property. Perception can be easy or super hard to change.
I think it's a fair statement that IF equipment were made available ALL the locals in Chama or Antonito would welcome it home. After all this portion of the line IS the narrow gauge mainline and not a branch line lol!!
