He wouldn't put up with this stuff. I can tell you that for nothing.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amtrak suspended its high-speed Acela Express trains between Washington and Boston on Friday because of cracks found in hundreds of brake discs and said it may not have full service restored for two months.In a potentially serious setback for the passenger railroad that is fighting to survive threatened cuts in government aid, an inspection turned up 300 cracked brake rotors out of 1,440 installed on Amtrak's 20 Acela trains, the company said.
Amtrak Chief Operating Officer Bill Crosbie said it could take up to two months to get all the trains back on the rails. He said the process of phasing the trains back into service would not begin until Wednesday at the earliest. He had no timetable for when repairs would begin.
"Acela Express will return to service only when it is safe to operate," Crosbie told a news conference. {...}
Can we all admit one thing? Amtrak needs to be privatized and it needs to happen now. Because I, for one, am sick and tired of paying for it.
According to the article Amtrak received $1.2 billion for this year from the federal government. And they're having to shut their baby down because of shoddy brakes. How much more is this going to put them in the hole? How quickly are they going to go begging to Uncle Sam? Bleh. On today of all days, when most people have to hand over large chunks of their income to the government, it's about time to recognize the fact that government ownership and operation of Amtrak is just not working out and it needs to be sold off, part and parcel, to someone who wants to buy it and run it profitably.
Perhaps Richard Branson would be interested.
Posted by Kathy at April 15, 2005 11:52 PM