Ed
You write:
> One item lost in many arguments about the passenger
> business is that most passengers were not from Chicago and
> going to Denver. The demise of the eastern roads and the loss
> of connections hurt the western carriers where it hurts most, in
> the wallet. In 1968 or 1969, KCS was still a proponent of the
> passenger train. The loss of connectiing traffic changed its mind
> within a year.
My observations of the DZ in the sixties were that most passengers
were, like myself, Chicago to Denver. There was significant
intermediate traffic but, particularly in the slumbercoaches, we all
rode from end to end. And you still had to get slumbercoach
reservations months in advance.
> If Menk did not take steps to stem the hemorhage of cash when
> he did, when should he have acted? Keep in mind, that major
> business decisions are not made in a vacuum, others officers
> and the Board were certainly in the loop.
I think that, in Menk's zeal to kill the passenger train, he did not
entertain options on how to adapt it so that it would not
hemorrhage. Murphy's combining of trains, while esthetically not
pleasing, perhaps, did preserve the services. Actually, I personally
did not object to the remnant of train 2 and its westbound
counterpart, that consisted of one coach coupled behind the obs of
the DZ between Omaha and Chicago (I know the conventional wisdom is
Burlington to Chicago, but, I swear that car was on the train west of
Burlington). In fact, I thought it added to the train's mystique.
And also showed what a brilliant move Murphy made in buying the flat-
end observation cars for the DZ.
I even thought at the time, as a teenager, that while the white
linens in the diner was nice, I would not have objected to their
removal if it would have saved money.
I think that Menk, had not been so sure of himself about the demise
of the passenger train, might have found a way to retain a super
salesman, Hebert C. Wallace. True, Wallace would have had to work
with Menk to be more fiscally responsible and not give away the store
in the process. But Menk was not completely correct about the riders
of those trains not being potential shippers. Many were kids, and
many of those kids have grown up and now occupy positions where they
make shipping decisions. Menk was not thinking far enough ahead.
It is fair to say that no infrastructure was in place to save the
passenger train in the 1960's. Merger of the CZ with the City of San
Francisco west of Ogden would not have even been considered by the
anti-passenger SP, and, even so, because of the train sheds on Donner
Pass, would perhaps have meant sacrificing at least some of the dome
cars, which would have been disasterous. Finding a way to route the
Texas Chief through Tulsa and then Kansas City, while possible then,
would have not even been thought of by anti-passenger Frisco, nor
would the proud Santa Fe even considered it, though, had it been
done, the Lone Star would still be running today. Things that could
have been done that would have preserved a lot more and better
passenger train service were not done because the general attitude
was one of getting rid of it rather than what can we do to save it
without losing our shirts. It is clear that what trains we have now
would have been survivors then, given the current climate, including
the governmental financial support that the other transportation
modes received, but there would still be other routes now, like
Denver-Kansas City, had some national effort been made to save the
passenger train in 1961 instead of 1971. And this omission will
become more noticable as security tightens on American airplanes and
perhaps planes are cancelled because of questionable passengers.
I really think we are going to hurt badly in the future because we
let our passenger rail network go.
sjl
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