Amtrak Benefits All Areas

The editorial "Off Track" said that rail routes that take more than five hours cannot hope to compete with airlines. This is true only for travel between cities with hub airports.

For example, my daughter lives in northern Indiana. Visiting me would require a three-hour drive to either Chicago or Indianapolis to take a flight to Washington, with added time to go through airport security and a flying time of about two hours. Or she can take Amtrak's Capitol Limited line from Elkhart, Ind., to Washington at a much lower fare, though I admit that the travel time, about 15 hours, is longer. She says the higher cost of flying or driving would make it impossible to visit me.

I agree with the editorial's premise: "Trains cost taxpayers too much." However, the answer is not to eliminate the federal subsidy but to look seriously at the factors that have driven the public to abandon long-distance rail travel. Why, for instance, do we tolerate having just two trains going west from Washington, one running daily and one three days a week?

Amtrak's managers and their congressional overseers appear to give greater consideration to cutting costs than to encouraging long-distance rail travel. With a different approach, we might see a return to the days when passenger rail service was a profitable and viable alternative to air travel.

WILSON DeCAMP

Vienna

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The Post advocates allowing the government to give a private company a monopoly on a passenger rail route, but that is unlikely because most tracks are owned by private railroads that believe -- because of safety requirements and the integrated nature of railroading -- Amtrak should be the sole intercity passenger provider.

The editorial cited two examples of competition. In one, North Carolina owns some tracks, but Norfolk Southern controls the tracks, and there has been no competition among passenger carriers. The Post's other example involved local commuter rail in Boston and thus involves different rules. There is, however, no evidence that Boston's service has improved since Amtrak ceased providing it.