Aloha Airlines, ATA, and SkyBus are no longer with us. While I have never flown any of these airlines before, the latter two went under extremely quickly, with little warning. I think that while the rest of our airlines are having issues, none of the large carriers like Delta, NWA, USAir, etc are going to go under anytime soon.
The one transportation company that should be going under is Amtrak. The government company that almost nobody uses refuses to die, mostly because politicians with a toy-train fetish keep it alive. Who in god's name would take a train from NYC to Los Angeles, a 3 day journey that would cost several hundred dollars for a seat, and over $2,000 for a bedroom one way!!! Considering that I could fly on an airline such as Virgin Atlantic which offers free TV and MP3's (which Amtrak does not have) for $250 (round trip).
So, now that we all agree that the choo-choo should die, let's write our congressmen and tell them to introduce a bill to save the taxpayers over $1B a year (unfortunately we spend that much in Iraq in 3 days) and stop funding Amtrak. The Acela, the "high speed" (1/2 the speed of the TGV in France) train will likely survive, as it rides from DC to NYC to Boston, but who honestly would ever hop on that train from NYC to LA?
1 comment:
I agree about the trains. No one should have to pay taxes to keep them updated and if they still want to run, a private entity with no government ties should own them.
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