Cutting back on Amtrak is poor decision

Iam writing from Vermont and am a member of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. I therefore keep track of railroad passenger news and have found the recent article written by Tripp Stelnicki in the Santa Fe New Mexican (“Ticket window is history at Lamy Amtrak station,” April 30). I do appreciate the train service, and I have been a passenger aboard many long-distance trains.

However, I see that Amtrak is planning to remove your local station agent. This is an absolute disgrace. It disenfranchises folks with checked baggage, plus removes a personal source of assistance and information. An agent accomplishes more than just ticket sales. This kind of move really aggravates those of us who want to see rail passenger service strengthened and improved.

The reason I am writing is to recommend that anyone concerned, including elected officials, contact Amtrak and strongly protest its actions. Certainly this type of thing deserves a lot of negative exposure. The National Association of Railroad Passengers is voicing its own concerns to Amtrak management.

What has Amtrak done to increase ridership in your area? How much advertising?

We fear that the new Amtrak president and CEO, Richard Anderson, is making poor decisions. He is not an experienced railroader and prior to this job has probably taken little interest in our greatest trains. He seems to be all too wound up with the Northeast Corridor. I would recommend fighting this with a vengeance.

Anderson probably has not vacationed nor traveled for business on the Southwest Chief. What would one think if a cook didn’t eat his own cooking? Here Anderson, who is now seeking all kinds of ways to eliminate costs, apparently does not believe in his own product. Anderson needs to be stopped. These actions will decrease ridership, and then the next thing is they will try to reduce or discontinue service.

I will close with a comment written by Jim Loomis, who writes his own blog and has been a board member of National Association of Railroad Passengers:

“And so top management at Amtrak continues to make cuts that diminish the experience for sleeping car passengers without listening to their front-line employees or the passengers themselves or the passenger rail advocates. The Amtrak brass is convinced if they keep cutting, the red ink will disappear. The question is, who’s going to pay top-dollar to ride on what’s left when they’re through cutting?”