The sad fact is that Amtrak has been economically punishing people who ride...(More)

The sad fact is that Amtrak has been economically punishing people who ride between Philadelphia and New York City for years. In this video, Amtrak pretends that the hottest evening commuter train headed south out of New York City has no coach seats available... for about the whole next year! All they'll sell a Philadelphia rider is a business class ticket for $105. Even live ticket agents can't sell a coach ticket to Philly. But coach seats are available if you buy a ticket PAST Philadelphia. A coach ticket to Wilmington, DE, a few minutes past Philadelphia, is just $49! That's $56 less than the cheapest ticket they'll sell in advance to a Philadelphia rider!!! Amtrak actually commits two big sins of dishonesty and dishonor here. First, Amtrak lies about being sold out in coach. Then Amtrak compounds its sin by charging less for a seat for going farther -- LOTS LESS!!! Going to Washington on train 137 is actually $36 CHEAPER than going to Philadelphia. IMHO, this is absolutely, positively a case of giving the politicians who fund Amtrak a back door kickback. In the process, people in the Philly-NYC section of the Corridor get bumped off for the cheap Washington riders. Perhaps the most heavily subsidized Amtrak customers in America are our Washigton representatives. How else can you explain $69 for politicians to ride more than twice as far as people forced to pay $105 to get on the same train for a short hop? What's wrong with charging Washington riders MORE than Philadelphia riders? Even in business class, Washington is cheaper than Philly! Moreover, Washington politicians passed a 2005 law to force Amtrak to raise the fares for daily job commuters by about $5,000 to $7,000 a year, but only on the Northeast Corridor. This forced so many commuters off the trains that every single state along the Northeast Corridor from Maryland to Connecticut saw a loss of Amtrak riders from 2005 to 2006, making it easier to get those cheap tickets to and from Washington. At the same time, gas first hit $3 a gallon, and Amtrak's ridership grew by leaps and bounds elsewhere in the country. The excuse that politicians used to raise commuter fares $5,000 to $7,000 on the Corridor was that Amtrak needs to make more money so that it needs less subsidy money from Uncle Sam in order to operate -- the "good stewardship" argument. But so many people were driven off the trains that Amtrak actually lost more commuter money than it gained! The most subsidized passengers on the NEC are the ones from Washington who ride on the cheap in an upside down fare system. It's an American political disgrace hiding in plain sight. I thank Amtrak's automated telephone voice at 1-800-USA-RAIL, "Julie," for helping me make this video. ;-)(Less)