WASHINGTON — History shows that cutting passenger train frequency to save money is short-term folly, said the retired president of the Rail Passengers Association lobby. Responding to Amtrak’s proposed reductions on October 1, Ross Capon pointed to Amtrak’s attempt to save money with similar cuts in 1995. “Experience from the 1990s shows that Amtrak’s plan to run the entire long-distance network less than daily will not achieve promised savings,” Capon said. His point: It didn’t then and won’t now. Further, he said, fewer trains will inhibit the return of the ridership that Amtrak says is prerequisite for service restoration. Waiting for an upturn in ridership misses compounds the damage because adding trains takes weeks if not months of planning, he said. Capon called in Amtrak to seek supplemental federal and state funding to maintain existing daily service on its long-distance network. including the Chicago-Winona-St. Paul-Seattle-Portland route.
Earlier: Rail passenger lobbyist to Amtrak: Bad idea