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Senator Makes Amtrak Hire Ticket Agents Because 30 Percent of His State Lacks Internet (senate.gov)
McGruber writes: Joe Manchin, the senior Senator from West Virginia, has inserted language in the FY19 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that will force Amtrak to employ at least one ticketing agent in every state that it serves.
His reasoning? "Amtrak has told me that most of their sales are now online, but West Virginians buy far more tickets at the Charleston station than most places around the country. That's not surprising, as nearly 30% of West Virginia is without internet access, and mobile broadband access is also difficult in my state's rugged, mountainous terrain, making online ticket sales difficult." Manchin continued: "Our population includes many working class families and elderly residents who are less likely to have a credit card or another means to purchase tickets remotely, but rely heavily on the train as an alternative to driving or flying. Although Matt Crouch's job was terminated today, once the bill is passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President, Amtrak will have to reinstate a position in the state and I will do everything over the next few months to make sure that happens."
His reasoning? "Amtrak has told me that most of their sales are now online, but West Virginians buy far more tickets at the Charleston station than most places around the country. That's not surprising, as nearly 30% of West Virginia is without internet access, and mobile broadband access is also difficult in my state's rugged, mountainous terrain, making online ticket sales difficult." Manchin continued: "Our population includes many working class families and elderly residents who are less likely to have a credit card or another means to purchase tickets remotely, but rely heavily on the train as an alternative to driving or flying. Although Matt Crouch's job was terminated today, once the bill is passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President, Amtrak will have to reinstate a position in the state and I will do everything over the next few months to make sure that happens."
Or they could just buy the tickets on the train. Train rides aren't like air travel. You can show up, get on, and pay when the guy comes by to see your ticket. A much saner law would have been Amtrak isn't allowed to charge an on-board surcharge when the station has no in-person ticketing available.
It might be easier for people to get tickets if they were available at at United States Post offices and postal stations. Folks would need to plan their travel plans in advance because post offices aren't open 24/7, but even most small tows have postal service outlets.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
The problem is Amtrak competes against a service which is heavily subsidized by the government - cars and trucks run on freeways constructed with tax dollars (fuel taxes only pay for maintenance). If the roads weren't so heavily subsidized, the U.S. would be more like Europe and would make greater use of rail transport for both cargo and people.*
So expecting Amtrak to be profitable on its own is unrealistic. You need to subsidize it to the same degree you're subsidizing freeways just to level the playing field. And when you subsidize a small service to that degree, politicians start to play around with how the money should be spent.
* The idea back when freeways were first made was that trucks could transport goods from endpoint to endpoint, eliminating the need for expensive labor-intensive loading and unloading stages, where people at the railyard have to move cargo from the train onto a truck to make it to its final destination, or vice versa. The labor of the loading/unloading stages was the predominant cost to cargo transport at the time, so eliminating it was an economically sound idea. But since then, fuel costs have increased substantially, and the advent of container transport has reduced loading/unloading costs. But we're still stuck with a cargo transport system built based on the old cost structure, which is artificially keeping trucks competitive with trains for long-distance transport.