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FIFTY YEARS AGO – THE SLOGAN WAS NEXT TIME TAKE THE TRAIN – YOU WOULD TRAVEL PULLMAN FOR COMFORT AND SAFETY – TODAY AMTRAK IS AN INSULT TO THE HISTORY OF USA PASSENGER RAIL SERVICE

Amtrak Passengers Stuck On ‘Train From Hell’ For Almost 24 Hours on the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR.

Amtrak being allowed to ues the name CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR is an insult to one of the great streamliners in American history (pictured to the left).

The slogan for the Pullman Company was “next time take the train.”  You would be able to travel in Pullman comfort and safety.  No longer possible with the totally inept Amtrak.

If only it were realistically possible to travel in the safety and comfort of Pullman accommodations today.   That of course is over.  Deluxe first class reliable train travel in the tradition of the Pullman Company is now history.  Amtrak is the blight that replaced the great American trains with another third-rate US government institution.

The Pullman Company carried millions of passengers and had a great safety record.

Amtrak can barely move 95 percent less people and has accidents monthly.  More passenger fatalities than the history of the Pullman Company. Now, the USA has the equivalent of “Third World” rail passenger travel.  The California Zephyr (a name Amtrak should never have been allowed to desecrate) arrived 24 hours late this week after a five day hell ride from San Francisco to Chicago. Rail travel under our inept government is now evident in the the dreadful money wasting Amtrak. Let private enterprise take over this Washington joke!

Looking back at when passenger trains were great:

Today – “the boss” would have to take the night off to fly anywhere – with delays, weather problems and endless third rate security efforts. He would never take the shoddy Amtrak.

You would never dine like this aboard Amtrak.

Today, you would never relax with a drink like this on Amtrak.  And of course no one be dressed like this.

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Looking at the SOUTHERN BELLE

Cruising the past looks at the streamliner SOUTHERN BELLE.

American deluxe rail travel, 1920s to 1950s, unrivaled anywhere to the present, the epitome of style, in transport, which gave travel its sense of occasion, combined with the right degree of urgency and speed.

One such train was the streamliner SOUTHERN BELLE.

A small train, with diner, observation-lounge and Pullman service ran overnight between Kansas City and New Orleans.

When the Southern Pacific’s service deteriorated in the 1960s – Santa Fe would put their passengers aboard the Super Chief from Los Angeles to Kansas City where they would connect with the first class SOUTHERN BELLE.

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