markonline1

Having never taken a train in the US, I have no idea if it’s true, but I was also told all the lines are owned by freight companies, and freight trains will always take priority over passenger trains.

scrubbedexpat091

Vancouver by all accounts has good transit, but problem is unless you live and work downtown its rather inefficient and time consuming, what take 30 minutes by car can be 60 minutes and 2 transfers by transit, until transit is comparable time wise to driving, I just don't see masses outside of downtown cores giving up cars and in Vancouver your not going to be living downtown if your not making near 6 figures, and even from our old place, transit was only useful if going downtown but still took 20 minutes rather than 10 by car.

And its not 24/7 so unless your whole life is going to be planned around transit, well I'll always choose a car where possible.

Now where we live, transit is basically useless, and so time consuming. 35 minutes by car (13km) or 70 to 89 minutes by bus and requires a connection so 2 buses each way, not hard to see why just about everyone drives here.

City's are just too spread out in the western part of the US and Canada for transit to be effective, there isn't enough tax revenue to build a transit system in our area that could ever get the masses out of their cars.

scrubbedexpat091

Aside from some tracks in the North East, and possible small sections elsewhere, but yes for the most part Amtrak runs on the freight rails and while Amtrak is supposed to get priority it doesn't always happen, some of the freight rail roads are better than others though, basically the same in Canada with Via Rail, nothing like sitting for 12 hours because a a mile long freight train has broken down blocking the single track.

Pulaski

The main line across NC has recently been returned to dual lines, and there is, I hear, an improved passenger service, with "express" trains now capable of running at up to 90mph. Woo hoo! ..... So the same speed that express trains were running in the UK sixty years ago, and 35mph slower than trains in the UK were achieving 45 years ago!

zzrmark

I'm surprised at Greenville SC being on the list, headquarters to BMW and Michelin with growing peripheral industries, I doubt if it's the biggest airport in SC but I'd have thought they could do with every airline they could get.

markonline1

Public Transport! You haven’t lived u less you’ve taken a London night bus LOL!! The N97 between Piccadilly Circus and Heathrow will be forever etched on my mind, even though I never rode it sober. A mix of shitfaced revellers, the homeless and airport staff traveling in for the early shift. It was like a mobile version of the cantina in Moss Eisley in the first Star Wars LOL. Anyway, sorry to briefly go off piste, all the talk of public transport suddenly
bought back memories.

Pulaski

But you can drive to CLT in about the same time as the check-in time ahead of a flight to CLT, and save on the layover time. If I was living in Greenville and facing a change in CLT, I certainly wouldn't choose to fly from Greenville.

Pulaski

Yeah, public transport can be interesting. I took the night bus a few times, but also ran across the concourse at Waterloo shortly after midnight a few times too, and thankfully never suffered the indignity of falling asleep on the train and ending up at 2am in Esher, Guildford, or Windsor, or whereever the late night trains out of Waterloo terminated.

I also used to take the 77 home from the Aldwych sometimes on a Friday evening, if I wasn't in a hurry, and while the journey to Wimbledon was slow it meant bypssing the scrum at Waterloo.

scrubbedexpat091

If anyone is interested in the ATC communications during the Fedex earlier in the week at LAX

scrubbedexpat091

AA is planning to cut at least 19,000 jobs when the CARES money ends Sept 30.

They expect 4th quarter capacity to be down 50% over same period 2019, international flights will just 25% of their 2019 schedule.

The involuntarily cuts will include 17,500 union workers including pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers, along with 1,500 admin and management cuts.

AA expected to have 40,000 less employees compared to March.

These cuts would be in addition to the 12,500 employees who voluntarily left the company permanently, and the 11,000 who have opted to take a leave from the company voluntarily.


Delta say's they plan to cut 1,941 pilots if they cannot reach a cost cutting agreement with the union. Revenue at Delta has only recovered 25%.

Some 1,800 pilots have opted for early retirement, but Delta still has more pilots than they need, Delta is asking the union for a 15% pay cut to minimum pay to avoid lay offs, but so far the company and union have not reached an agreement.

Delta expects to need 9,450 pilots in summer 2021 which they expect to be peak flying for the next 12-18 months.

Delta will send pilots hired on or after July 17, 2017 WARN letters.

United has warned 36,000 employees, but the final involuntary cuts wont be known until the voluntary departures are done.

Southwest doesn't expect to need to do involuntary cuts in 2020 as 25% of its workforce have taken early retirement or unpaid leave from the company.

Airlines are pushing the government for ore funding to avoid layoffs.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/25/amer...n-october.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/delt...n-october.html



At this point, since the recovery wont be quick, I wonder if its better for the government to provide more funding, or just let the airlines downsize, its clear they wont be back to 2019 levels anytime soon.


Interesting in a way how US and Canada handle their airlines, Canada basically told the airlines oh well, better figure out a way to survive, which cost a lot of jobs, but so far Air Canada at least has been able to rightsize and get funding from private sources, but it did cost 50% of their employees their jobs.

civilservant

With the current state of Congress, and with a Presidential election looming, no one is getting more money until after November 3rd, and probably not until the new Congress is seated in January.

An airline bailout is not going to be popular with the electorate when they couldn't get unemployment pay or a second stimulus check done.

scrubbedexpat091

I suspect you are correct.

Pulaski

All those and a lot more besides will be rolled into one single bill. Any more money for the airlines is a total non-starter unless there is also more money for certain other business sectors and individuals. Whether Congress does anything before November remains to be seen, as does, (if Congress does nothing) how effective all the finger-pointing and name calling will be ahead of the election.

penguinsix

This buzzed my house today. A DC-3 / C-47

Think it was doing some testing for the Naval Research Laboratory nearby.

Pulaski

It is astonishing that a plane design that first flew just 32 years after the Wright brother's first powered flight is still in commercial service 85 years later!

As the famous quip goes, the best replacement for a DC-3, .... is another DC-3..