Thread regarding Union Pacific Corp. layoffs

Instead of getting upset with Amtrak because we’re getting a stimulus to NOT lay people off (which we never done in centuries) why not come over to the railroaders heaven? I worked for UP for 12 looooong hard years and after I took the offer with Amtrak I could REALLY see how messed up UP as a corporate entity was. Everyone here respects us freight guys as the golden children of the railroad, managers go out of their way for you and our union actually FIGHTS for you! I never heard of an ex-Amtrak employee at UP but we have MANY ex-UP people here. We don’t have a lay-off forum BECAUSE WE DONT FURLOUGH!! Amtrak will never go anywhere so if you Can’t beat em, join em.

Say what? lol

Yet another case of a false dilemma.

You know what else has never turned a dime of profit and is currently guzzling billions of dollars in taxpayer funds?

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System! Those trucks kicking UP’s but pay only a small fraction of the cost of building and maintaining the highways they drive on.

Oh, but Amtrak must turn a profit right? Because it’s a train, and trains must make money.

You know what else was subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars?

Your airports; built with federal funds. If you had to pay the real cost of an airplane ticket including the cost of building the airport, you’d be paying 20 to 50 percent more.

Oh... and except for the Great Northern RR, they were all built on government free land with subsidies.

Outside the US, land based transportation is subsidized as a political choice to enable further economic activity with low emissions and high efficiency. But here, dedeedee... the Amtrak is bad because it makes no profit, and truck is good because it makes profit, even though that’s all fake.

Not bad cops and bad teachers.

that is what a tax is. And people are ok with tax money going to cops and teachers. UP not so much.

It’s all a transfer of wealth.

they’re not private businesses on corporate welfare.

So do cops and firemen and teachers as examples.

Amtrak is just one part of the rail industry. And yes UP and others continue to live off the government.

AMTRAK is not “the rail industry”. FRA gives grants with the money to help subsidize covid safety measures. You not liking how railroading has evolved does not make it reckless.

Amtrak is managed as a for profit organization and has never made a profit. There are only a few places in the country where it makes sense to exist

Amtrak is a government agency that operates passenger rail. Amtrak has always been funded by the government. It was part of the deal back in the 1970s. Passenger service was drowning the rail industry as was smaller railroads that had the same destination and route of larger roads. Conrail was formed from bankrupt North Eastern railroads.

Correct. Just a highly subsidized welfare queen with lobbyists in Washington.

The nation doesn’t own the rail system. The rail companies do. As info.