Word: rails
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Amtrak is a disaster. A squeaking, rumbling, stopping-for-no-good-reason failure of a national rail service. How do I know? Suffice it to say I've spent a good deal of time over the last ten years either on Amtrak trains or desperately trying to avoid the Amtrak experience. At best, my train trips have been tolerable. At worst, they've given me the kind of heartburn that only comes from four hours of pent-up rage...
...budget conscious as I am, we'd have a train system that worked. Unfortunately, the entire company is in shambles. Monday, the Amtrak board of directors begged Transportation Secretary Norman Minetta for another $200 million in "rescue" funds. The White House seemed uninterested in bailing out the ailing rail system and many GOP leaders, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, said they'd like to eliminate Amtrak's rail monopoly...
...there's nothing Amtrak needs more than a good swift kick in the corporate butt. An unprecedented commuter crisis? Fantastic: the news media will be crawling all over that story, and Amtrak will have nowhere to go. Americans will finally get the message: yes, folks, this is your national rail system, incapable of maintaining train service even on one of its only profitable routes. Isn't it pathetic? Aren't you proud...
...Venturing beyond the capital city to the coast is made easy by an extensive, Soviet-era rail line.It is even possible to stay at a private Russian dacha equipped with a banya, or sauna, for a detoxifying swelter?vodka in hand, of course...
...regional thinkers has looked through that hole and seen an opportunity. Right away they started dusting off long-cherished schemes, some of which may very well come true. It's likely that any final plan will envision a major new terminal linking the Manhattan subways with suburban commuter rail systems. It will also probably re-establish several city streets that were covered over by the much despised "superblock" of the Trade Center plaza...