Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/amtrak-2025)
Amtrak’s oldest new trains are arriving shortly: The NextGen Acela (finally) starts running between Washington and Boston on Thursday, Aug. 28. Ordered in 2016 for $1.8 billion, the first trains arrived from the Alstom assembly facility in Hornell, New York in 2020. That meant jobs there for 1300 workers and business for 180 suppliers across 29 states. These new trains are 95% “made in the USA”.
As President upends the way things are done in D.C., I thought I’d revisit an idea I wrote about two years ago that he might just consider. Trump is big on privatizing government services (like the post office), so why not Amtrak, too? Why does the U.S. have only one serious passenger railroad? And given its monopoly and high fares, wouldn’t a choice of rail carriers bring better service and lower prices? Sure, Amtrak competes against the air shuttles (which are faster, but even more expensive), buses (much cheaper and slower) and, of course, cars (also slower).