Ed --
Your recent experience with Amtrak is certainly different than mine. A
couple years back, Patricia and I took the "California Zephyr" from
Oakland, CA to Grand Jct., CO, where we rented a car for 2 weeks, then
caught the train back home. Not only was it an extremely pleasant trip, but
it was actually cheaper than either flying into Denver or driving (when you
figure in the cost of 2 nights each way in modest motels, plus 2 average
restaurant meals per day, with something like a daily picnic lunch). I
realize you were looking into sleeping accommodations much fancier than
what we had (the modern equivalent of a "section" with 2 bunks). But we
both found it very relaxing and comfortable. The food, while hardly
gourmet, was several orders of magnitude above anything you'd get on an
airline these days. And with the First Class fare, you could have anything
you wanted on the menu for free (except alchohol, which mattered very
little to me). And the people were great -- so friendly and interesting!
Airlines, in crowding folks together, actually make people less inclined to
interact. Trains encourage sociability, through e.g. shared dining at a
table, the longer time spent together, and facility in moving around. I
would be very sorry to see this route ended, as is threatened.
I appreciate your weariness with the Lou Menk/passenger train topic and
have no desire to prolong it (especially since I jumped in so late). But I
feel called to respond to your statement that:
"Tactics used to discourage business are not new to industry and if they
were used in the Menk era, as many suggest and I agree, we should step back
from our passion and explore the why or why nots.."
Please understand that while I share your and Steve's love and admiration
for "a great railroad that ran great trains," my passion in this case
doesn't come from any Walt Disney-like idealization of the Good Old Days. I
know businesses have to make hard and unpopular decisions. I'll grant your
point about the financial conditions the Q faced in the late '60s, and I
have already conceded, for the sake of argument, the inevitability of
ending private rail passenger service. But those circumstances don't excuse
either dishonesty (in the sense of evidence cooking) or abusive treatment
of customers. I'm sorry; that's just sleazy, and if Louis Menk did that he
deserves no respect, no fond memory, no ancestral reverence; what he
deserves is Randy Danniel's Monkey #2 (and this IS the Year of the Monkey).
As I said in my last posting, I don't know the facts and so must remain
agnostic about Mr. Menk's guilt or innocence. But to justify such stuff as
is alleged by appeal to either "circumstances" or the principle that "One
does not rise to these lofty heights without burying bodies along the way"
doesn't sway me a whole lot more than it would if the guy's name were Ivan
The Terrible or Vlad The Impaler.
Nor does the fact that other corporations have used such tactics to
discourage business. You may extend my condemnation to them as well. I
still have enough faith in the American system to believe that "business
ethics" is not an oxymoron and that it is possible to be decent and honest
with other people, run a successful company, and make a good living. If I
ever become convinced otherwise, you can sign me up for The Revolution.
Jonathan
PS: Your photos, in the new BRHS calendar, are remarkable -- some of the
finest railroad photographs I have EVER seen (and they are not even close
to the era or location that hold the most interest for me). Bravo!
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