Area Transportation Roundup

Photo from Ron Gilbert. (It's not a DC photo, but I like it.)

I haven't written about Amtrak's problems with Acela, and the cancellation of service due to cracks in the trains' disc brakes. The Baltimore Sun has an article about it today. Interestingly enough I read an article about Bombardier, the manufacturer, in the Financial Times last week. I don't have a link, but they made about $33 million on sales of $5.6 Billion. Pretty pathetic, although there were lots of special charges. that's a "profit" of .067% (uhh, less than 1%).

Amtrak is important for a lot of reasons. It's a major employer in Washington, where it is headquartered, and there are major locomotive repair and maintenance facilities, etc. I think its economic development aspects need to be given greater support on the part of local economic and political elites.

Although I believe that we will use up most of the major sources of easily accessible oil in our lifetimes, we can still fly on planes for the time being.

I like Independence Air because they fly to a lot of places, like Louisville, relatively cheaply, in comfortable planes (although the hokey announcements from people like Mia Hamm are old the second time you hear them). It's not too hard to get to Dulles from here (you can even take a Metrobus from L'Enfant Plaza for $3) and there's a lot to be said for inexpensive flights. Independence Air is having a hard time and is flirting with bankruptcy. They are returning planes to their creditors and are restructuring debt.

The more you fly them, the better chance, hopefully, they have of surviving. They have a big sale on now, so if you're planning to go to Pasadena for the Congress for the New Urbanism, now's the time to buy.

Speaking of planes, today's Chicago Sun Times reports that US Air, which has been in bankruptcy three times I think, is in talks with America West to create a national "low cost" airline. US Air is a major carrier at National Airport, as people know, but their fares are pretty high. Maybe this could make them competitive and/or make it hard for Independence Air to survive. American West is West Coast-centric, while US Air is east coast- centric, so maybe this can work.