Opinion
Brewers, Amtrak idea a home run
Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.
Also by Zach Schuster:
- Madison leftists should take cue from moderates (April 20, 2009)
- Athletes bring donations to university, deserve to be coddled (April 6, 2009)
- Taking a lesson from PBR beer (March 22, 2009)
Sharing tools:
E-mail this article:
Baseball season is almost here again, which means that it is almost time for marauding bands of FIBs to come roaring up to “Wrigley Field North” towing their boats and swigging beers that are not Miller Lite. In the past, Brewers fans have had little recourse except to develop disparaging acronyms for the invading Cubs fans, but now in 2009, they have the opportunity to return the favor via Amtrak’s “Miller Park South” promotion.
The “Miller Park South” promotion will offer a free train ticket on Amtrak’s Hiawatha line to 100 Brewer fans who buy tickets for the Sept. 17 Brewers-Cubs game at Wrigley Field. It is only fitting that Amtrak would team up with America’s Pastime, since few things celebrate Americana like riding the train to a baseball game with scores of like-minded fans.
Mass transit in Wisconsin enjoyed a career year in 2008, and although its gaudy numbers did not result in success for mass transit measures at the ballot box, it did mean that Amtrak and its teammates were number one in the hearts of many Sconnies. The Milwaukee to Chicago line that will be taking the Brewers fans to “Miller Park South” experienced a 26 percent growth in ridership over the previous year, and throughout the entire nation, ridership increased 11 percent during that same time period.
The challenge for Amtrak is now to prove that those numbers were not inflated by the performance-enhancing drug of high gas prices and that intercity trains are legitimate stars just beginning to enter the prime of their careers.
The American train culture that has developed over time has focused on stadium anthems such as “City of New Orleans,” which romanticize the long-distance train home run. These routes that roll past cities, farms and fields are largely responsible for Amtrak’s financial strikeouts and the taunts from transit bush-leaguers in the Republican Party. Few Americans have the luxury of time and money to take lengthy train holidays, so the costs of maintaining long-distance train services far exceed the revenues they bring in.
In a perfect nation committed to mass transit, our country would provide endless funds for Amtrak, similar to the Yankees trying to buy a World Series title. Unfortunately, while no one bats an eye at putting mounds of money toward socialized driving, the scrutiny of public funding for mass transit operations is intense. Thus, Amtrak needs to be intelligent about the routes it chooses to focus its funds on now and develop in the future.
Chicks may dig the long ball, but a successful Amtrak will be one that focuses on developing effective regional high-speed rail networks in corridors with high demand. Amtrak’s service currently has some holes in its game, and yet riders have still expressed a demand to use regional routes between close urban centers. These urban centers, such as Milwaukee and Chicago, have extensive business ties, so Amtrak’s trains provide essential economic connections that are more convenient and relaxing than flying or driving.
The future is bright for the economic prospects of these regional routes, especially if Amtrak is able to develop its skills and realize its potential with high-speed rail lines that rival those of Europe and Asia. The increased level of service will make the diehards happy and it will also get the fair-weather fans to hop on the mass transit bandwagon.
Here in Wisconsin, train fans have to tip their caps to Amtrak for the public relations aggressiveness of the “Miller Park South” promotion. Wisconsin folks love their Brewers, but they all might not be familiar with the services Amtrak offers. Linking free train tickets with the Brew Crew’s most heated rivalry is the perfect way to draw attention to one of the Midwest’s premier regional service corridors.
Although they may have their differences, Chicago and Milwaukee have important economic and social connections that are easily bridged by a 90-minute train ride. With their promotion, Amtrak can highlight the ease and comfort with which Brewers fans invade Chicago while pointing out that a future high-speed rail line will be able to cut that travel time nearly in half. The timing is perfect as well, with some of the $8 billion allocated to high-speed rail development in the economic stimulus package expected to go toward a Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago high-speed rail line.
Midwest Amtrak fans longing for a high-speed rail World Series to come home to Wisconsin should be filled with the hope and optimism usually reserved for Opening Day. The “Miller Park South” promotion shows that Amtrak is starting to understand that its future is in economically viable regional routes between urban centers. Hopefully, both Amtrak and the Brew Crew can continue the momentum of their 2008 successes and team up in 2009 to defeat the evil Cubs and the boat-towing SUVs driven by their obnoxious fans.
Zachary Schuster (zschuster@wisc.edu) is a graduate student studying water resources engineering and water resources management.
7 Comments | Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Herald Blogs
The Beat Goes On
Brother Ali makes an ‘Exclusive’ stop
Muckrakers
Report: Barrett to make decision by the end of the week
Extra Points
Top Classified Ads (view all)
HOUSES FOR Fall 2010. All houses are on W Dayton or N Bassett. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 bedrooms. All have parking. madisoncampusrentals.com
Until Amtrak can do an express route from Chicago to NYC in 6 hours, it sucks and is embarrassing in comparison to other developed countries (France, Italy, Japan, China).
FYI: 800 miles/6hours = 133 MPH
Please realize the so-called “long distance” passenger trains are “short distance” trains for thousands of people who rely on trains for pick-up and drop-off all along the routes. Trains may be the only public transportation available to move people between one community and the next. Trains may be described by their endpoints, but that is just part of the story.
Amtrak picks up and drops off folks at about 500 stations across the country, and makes guaranteed “Thruway Bus” connections to perhaps another 500 stations. Madison has two Amtrak “stations” - UW Memorial Union and Dutch Mill Park and Ride.
As someone who no longer drives out of area, and doesn’t fly, it is thanks to “long distance” trains (and Thruway bus connections) that I attend meetings all across the country, as well as visit family and friends. For over 40 years trains have taken me to Minneapolis, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Dallas, New Orleans, El Paso, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, Chicago, Flagstaff, Pittsburgh, and intermediate stops in many states.
9:40, I don’t get people who are afraid to fly. Who wants to waste time sitting in an RV (John Madden) or taking a 2-day train to Arizona (you)?
Be a man, fly.
Obviously hats of to you Mr Schuster for giving a slap in the face to the people living in this tiny bubble called Madison. Public transit in this city is a joke and forces its inhabitants to still be reliant on driving just to get to the other side of town in a reasonable time warp.
Flying is by far the worst option of travel as it is the largest growing problem brewing in our atmosphere as we speak. So what better way to see the country-side than the Train…?
After having used the public transportation in Europe and Scandinavia over the past seven years the ever-lasting battle whether or not to invest in the infrastructure of Electric, High-Speed trains is a choice that America is afraid to invest in due to it’s weakening political leaders and their efforts to understand that the fuel engine is a thing of the past. The stakes get higher as we try to reason with the stress of daily routines. Stop for a second Americans and breath…breath all the emissions concentrated on this little Isthmus we consider to be “Green”
Be a human…support your new and upcoming enviro-neers!
One love,
Mr. Izzo
“So what better way to see the country-side than the Train…? “
They don’t put the highways and train tracks through the pretty areas. If you want to see countryside, you’re going to have to take side road and hike. The tracks will give you a great view of industrial parks, landfills and trailer homes.
When you say ballot box? What ballot box? Transit measures won across the board on November 4th. Including the sales tax increase in Milwaukee.
Passenger long-range rail transportation should be done away with. Amtrak hangs on by a thread by government subsidies on the order of several hundred million dollars every year because there’s not the economies of density(1) to justify passenger rail anywhere in the country except NYC and -maybe- Wash, DC.
Reality = happy!
(1) Enough passenger volume that the cumulative per-ticket profits is enough to justify the obscenely high costs of infrastructure and maintenance.