Talk:Amtrak

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

	Amtrak was one of the Engineering and technology good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones Date Process Result January 2, 2006 Good article nominee Listed December 10, 2006 Featured article candidate Not promoted April 23, 2007 Good article reassessment Delisted
Current status: Delisted good article

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The following sources contain public domain or freely licensed material that may be incorporated into this article: Congressional Research Service: Amtrak Profitability: An Analysis of Congressional Expectations at Amtrak's Creation, a report commissioned by Congress and in the public-domain. ‌

I just updated the Board of Directors section to include the list of directors as documented on the Amtrak website. The previous edit included a bullet point for FRA administrator Sarah E. Feinberg, but the linked page doesn't mention anything about being an alternate on the board, nor anything about the Amtrak board at all so I removed it. Is there any documentation for this?

Additionally, this US Code section mentions 10 total board members: the President of Amtrak, the Secretary of Transportation, and 8 other appointees. So it would seem we are missing a listed member and yet the Amtrak page only lists 9 members. - Overturn 91 (talk) 15:07, 29 July 2017 (UTC)Reply

@Oknazevad: Regarding this revert, Amtrak may be a railroad owner, but it is not a railroad by itself. For example Kyle Railroad is a railroad that is owned by a certain company with a different name. Marcocapelle (talk) 09:50, 23 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

Amtrak is absolutely a railroad. It owns tracks in several states, owns its own rolling stock, and perhaps most importantly hires its own engineers and conductors. Whether Amtrak should be in the various state categories is a different question. Those categories tend to be pretty broad. I tend to think that under our current practice it should. Although Amtrak neither owns nor leases track in Montana, for example, it runs trains there and employs people. In addition to being categorized, it's listed as a passenger carrier in List of Montana railroads. Mackensen (talk) 11:20, 23 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

What Mackensen said. Amtrak is a self-operating railroad, not merely an owner that contracts others to operate on its tracks, nor a company that operates on others' tracks exclusively. They do operate over other railroads' lines, but that is as another railroad. And they operate on their own lines. They are a railroad themselves. oknazevad (talk) 20:22, 23 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

@Oknazevad, Mackensen, and Marcocapelle: Amtrak IS a railroad, not a railway owner, king regards, M R T R A I N S 2 2 7 14:34, 29 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 6 September 2022 and 9 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Dscsd21 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Sltiger.

— Assignment last updated by TotalSolarEclipse (talk) 14:17, 27 October 2022 (UTC) -I (User Dscsd21) plan to add a section about how Amtrak is contributing to climate change, and how climate change is effecting Amtrak under the labor issues section of the article by 11/2/2022. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dscsd21 (talk • contribs) 23:07, 1 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

From

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak (/ˈæmtræk/) (reporting marks AMTK, AMTZ), is the national passenger railroad company of the United States.

To

Amtrak (/ˈæmtræk/) (reporting marks AMTK, AMTZ), is the Trade name of the "National Railroad Passenger Company" of the United States.

Why

The subject of the article is Amtrak, and people know the corporation by the Trade Name.

How

I like any changes to be considered by other users before implementation; and I think input from others and the opinions and insights of others are important and part of the revision process..

Flibbertigibbets (talk) 23:55, 2 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

The current phrasing is pretty standard when a company's legal name and trade name/branding are different. The company is the subject, not the name, which is how the proposed phrasing reads. It's better the way it is now. oknazevad (talk) 03:02, 3 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, that the kind of stuff I need to know before I make an edit.Flibbertigibbets (talk) Flibbertigibbets (talk) 03:11, 3 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

With the April 2023 merger of Canadian Pacific into CPKC, presumably its shareholding in Amtrak was included. The most recent cite I could find was from 2015, so while the shareholding was probably included, until a reliable source can be found to confirm, suggest we just leave it as CP. Shuistur (talk) 06:14, 1 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

The previous version had several glaring inaccuracies about the Chicago termini which I've corrected in my edit:

• No trains were relocated from LaSalle St. Station. The only intercity trains remaining there on May 1, 1971 were those of the Rock Island, which did not join Amtrak.
• Grand Central Station had been closed in 1969, so it was not a factor on Amtrak Day.
• Randolph St. Station was a commuter-only station, and was unaffected by Amtrak's formation.
• North Western Station (now Ogilvie) became commuter-only on Amtrak Day because none of the intercity trains using that station were made part of the Amtrak system map. There were thus no trains to relocate; they simply died.
• Central Station's trains were not relocated to Union Station until the first departures on March 6, 1972. The routing, which is still used to this day, involves a tedious journey that includes a back-up move.

JonRoma (talk) 19:39, 13 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hello there, I would like to use this section of the talk page to inform anyone that is interested that I have just made changes to the page Rail Passenger Service Act in where I converted it from a redirect page to a normal article, as well as adding it to the Article rewrite category. The reasoning for these changes is because I am of the firm belief that the Rail Passenger Service Act would be better served with it's own standalone article rather than to redirecting to a brief summery on the Amtrak page. So if anyone is interested in either creating this article, or wish to revert it, please do so. I am just make making this announcement to both generate discussion on it and inform the people that would most care about the changes (as the last edit made to the redirect page was in 2011). The redirect link used on the page has been preserved in the "See also" category for currently existing information of the act. That is all for this announcement and thank you all for your time.

SonicDJM (talk) 17:58, 8 August 2023 (UTC)Reply

At the beginning of the history section, one sentence reads "Nearly 42 million passengers used railways as primary transportation." Is this Per Year? In Total? Would someone mind clarifying? Hugtrain (talk) 12:48, 2 June 2024 (UTC)Reply