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Skip to comments.Amtrak Subsidies vs. Megabus Private Enterprise
Posted on 10/18/2011 9:12:49 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Amtrak made statewide news recently with its announcement that it has set ridership records in Michigan. But one frequent critic of rail transit says that isnt necessarily a good thing.
Wendell Cox, a public policy consultant with Illinois-based Demographia, says that Amtrak is a far more costly option when compared to Megabus, a private bus service that launched in April 2006 and operates in about 50 major cities.
For example, Amtrak reported that its Detroit-to-Chicago rail service, known as the "Wolverine," had a 4.9 percent jump in usage.
If someone were to purchase an Amtrak ticket for a Nov. 7 trip from Detroit to Chicago and then return the same day, the cost would be $32 each way, or $64 round trip. But Cox cites a 2008 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts that reports Amtrak lost $55 per rider on each leg of the Detroit-Chicago route. Cox says thats $110 per roundtrip that taxpayers subsidized in 2008.
By comparison, the same roundtrip from Detroit to Chicago and back again on Megabus would take two extra minutes each way, but the Megabus roundtrip ticket costs $25.
(Excerpt) Read more at michigancapitolconfidential.com ...
ClusterF - the end result anytime government, at any level, tries to do something best left to the private sector.
THIS is why we need high-speed rail, and right now.
With HSR you could problably get there about 4 minutes faster than the bus.
That's 4 more minutes to purchase your favorite inebriants to take to the Occupy [insert city] event.
Amtrak is takin` Joe Taxpayer for a ride.
Still peddling the same old crap after all these years.
I have considerable experience with Amtrak, at least in FL.
Several years back they had a great deal where you could buy a year's pass on Amtrak in FL for <$100.
Since I travel a lot back and forth between two cities about 250 miles apart, this was great!
Unfortunately, I soon found that schedules on Amtrak aren't rules, they are more like vague suggestions.
Train was on time only about 50% of the time. The rest of the time anywhere from 1 to 10 hours late.
As they used to say, you can't run a railroad that way. Not unless the taxpayer subsidizes you.
Yeah, Willie is a Michigander unfortunately.
I always have this vision of him hiding in a shadowy Detroit alley and touching himself every time the empty people mover rolls by.
Please ping this to your ping list.
As some who is familiar with this route, and ride it fairly frequently, there is a LOT not said in this article.
This is one of just three Midwest routes with any frequency at all, and that is just three trains a day.
Amtrak routes these Detroit trains up to Pontiac, after Detroit, virtually empty. In my uninformed opinion, it's likely to keep the crews out of Central Detroit, and safe, late at night.
Amtrak actually owns the Michigan Central line these trains run part of the route over, and it was upgraded to high speeds several years back, but Amtrak doesn't actually have any high-speed equipment capable of running 110-MPH in the midwest.
Amtrak can't really add any frequency to this route, due to the massive congestion in Northern Indiana. They used to run 4 trains a day, but didn't have the equipment to maintain the schedule.
While a good service, on a high-volume run, Amtrak's own government-induced folly's are hurting it.
The AMTRAK services need to be sold off.
The bidding should be open and allow for multiple bidders for a single route, bids by the same bidder for more than one route and it should expect that some routes will not get any bids and, when everything is done, a route without a buyer will cease.
All union agreements will require renegotiation with the buyers and buyers must not be required to continue with any particular union contract, if they are not satisfied with what a union demands in the contract.
Fares should be completely unregulated. The buyers must be capable of running at a profit and that requires fares that can reach for that possibility.
Any existing railroad service company, whether it runs freight services, passenger services or both must be allowed to participate in the bidding process. They know the railroad business. They know how to schedule and charge for use of the infrastructure to obtain a profit. They are capable of doing so in passenger services if they are allowed to and as long as they are not forced to consume losses on unprofitable services. They may even someday find certain routes that can be profitable privately financed and operated "high speed" rail lines.
I take the Amtrak Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago for business. $42 roundtrip for a $100+ train ride - taxpayers pitch in the rest (of operating costs!).
Last time I got on, the train was delayed 1 hour. The time before that, I waited for the train for an hour and then a bus picked us up - apparently the trains have problems with their brakes in winter. True story. Amtrak subcontracts with bus companies.
Please freepmail me if you wish to be added or dropped from the mitten ping.
I'll suggest it one more time: Michcapcon, you need to create a ping list.
A plane can go faster than a train..
You're correct, but with the airport security shuck and jive added in, the plane trip (at least for moderate to short distances) is much longer than the actual air time.
It depends upon where the trip originates and terminates.
From downtown Chicago to downtown Detroit (folks used to travel to downtown Detroit. Seriously, they did) with 6 intermediate stops, the train in 1935 was faster than an airplane of today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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Wease Show Rundown 11-12-13
Start off the Morning with a Ramble
We start off the show by talking about a teacher who has recently been arrested for sending inappropriate photos to a 14 year old student (& vice versa) - Pauly tells an inappropriate teacher story from his high school as does Jackienutt! Wease moves on to leotard tak and then quickly shifts to the crazy alien morning show and describes to Marianne all the scientists and smart people that actually go on the show! Then we end the segment with a classic argument over movies - whats good, what makes it good and where to go!
Honor the Vets
Wease is honored as a veteran last night and part of the crew attends! Heres some photos --
Tools with Sports
- Tampa beat Miami last night 22-19
-Even though he will play this weekend, Tools suggests that EJ Manuel needs more time to develope before he starts! -- Wease suggests Tebow shouldve played for Bills because absolutely anyone wouldve been better than all these QBs.
- We get off on a huge movie tangent about where you can find movies online for free (and sports games too) Tools says he wants to watch games on TV and he'll just wait for movies to come to redbox - but impatient Wease wants the free movies now! Then Pauly and Tools go off about movie theaters!
-Wease tells a story about the Oakland University basketball coach being fired for mentally abusing the students. We discuss how stressful and intense that high level of sports can be -- then it turns into a ton of Penn State abuse jokes and Tools gets antsy!
Paula Popper
This women won an WXXI auction where she donated money to charity to sit in on the Wease show for a day. She is a life coach and clinical hypnotherapist (deals a lot of stress) at "Interpeace Works" Wease talks to her about her helping people quit smoking, and even though she doesnt do that she does try and help people loose weight -- its about why your eating what you are!
Redneck News
-John Castner, 49, and Gale Raponi, 57, charged with 61 counts of animal abandonment and 24 counts over-driving and torturing animals. The animals were extremely thin, no food or water, over 90 degree rooms, dead animals all around. 15-20 sheep, 2 geese, 3 pigs (5 if you include the criminals), a turkey, 10 chickens and 5 dogs.
- Chrystal Behm, 22, was arrested for aggravated harassment after making threatening overtones to her ex-boyfriends new girlfriend! She looks either innocent or like she got exactly what she wanted!!!
Doug with News
- Two fires this morning: One in Batavia where a man was killed, and one in Livingston where a women was hanging from her bedroom window but luckily saved.
-Sean Vickers arrested for 11 new counts of child abuse with 4 different boys - unfortunately the police believe there are many more victims since this has been going on since 1980s.
-Relief rushing to the rescue in the Philippines as over 10 million are affected, and over 10,000 dead
-Associated Press reported that corn based ethonal is actually way more costly and damaging that the government has been telling us
- Alec Baldwin enters court today as a Canadian actress has been stalking him and showing up at his multiple homes
-The decision will be announced this morning on who wnis the tallest building; either World Trade Center or the Willis Tower in Chicago
Kids, kids, kids....
A man, 25 years old from Sarasota County (Fla.) windexes his baby after smoking synthetic pot and getting anxiety about taking care of the kid; he now facing child abuse charges -- Wease describes that kids are harder when theyre older, running around and doing god knows what -- Marianne says what worries her is 'flat head' when you leave the baby on its head for too long and it flattens.... weird!
5 things We Can Cure if We Werent Puddy
- Figure out which medicine is okay to give to prego women that wont affect the baby.. basically endanering child and hoping it doesnt hurt them
- Could cure malaria if we wiped out all the mosquitos
- Learn how language is created by throwing a bunch of kids together, isolating them and seeing what comes out
- Find best way to raise kids to maxamize intelligence, friendliness, emotional stability by seperating two identical twins (Like the movie Twins!)
- Could cure most diseases (from HIV to Cancer) if clinical trials on humans were the first step instead of last
Casey Kasem
Big fight between Kasem kids and his wife Jean over controlof his affairs - Kids filed legal document saying he suffers from memory problems, hallucinations and impairment of thinking and communication skills -- The kids held a demonstration outside Casey's house claiming Jean wont let them see him... its basically a disaster
But that leads into a weird tangent about Ashley Madison, a website where people create fake profiles so they can cheat on their spouses -- a women is suing this company because she hurt her wrist typing up so many fake profiles! full story: http://read.bi/1akvuph
Paul Rees
Phoner Paul Rees calls in to tell us about his new book Robert Plant: A Life - a book on facts and history of Plant, his bands, his music and all the greatness! Now available on amazon
Two Lancer boys come in to promote their new seasopn starting this Saturday! Marianne tells us a ton of her soccer stories from when she was little, Wease reviews the rules, and positions of soccer! Indoor soccer is a lot more fast paced than normal soccer, few different rules but very exciting!
GEVA: "Late Night Catechism 2"
Novemeber 5 - Dec 15: A nun comedy play... seriously! The auditorium is set up like a 70s classroom and shockingly majority of the play is addlib - for all ages and religions!

subset: commoncrawl


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- HubPages»
- Family and Parenting
Autograph Books and Funny Quotes of Friends and Family from the 1950s and 1960s
Something that I have kept all these many years...and I mean many... is an old pink vinyl autograph book in which my parents, my two younger brothers, other relatives and friends signed their names and occasionally a little poem or saying.
I am no longer sure who gave it to me as a gift, but I am assuming that it was my paternal grandmother since that is the very first date (December 20, 1958) inscribed into the book along with her little poem. It might have been a slightly early Christmas gift because normally that set of grandparents headed south for the winter months.
Looking at this collection of signatures and sayings brings a smile to my face this many years later. The pages inside of this little six by four and a half inch book are multi-colored, with solid pink, white, yellow, green and blue pages upon which people could choose to write. In the back were a few stiff black pages upon which photos could have been added, but none were put onto those pages.
I'll share some of what was written back during those days of the 1950s and 1960s when the people I knew at that time were putting their pens to paper inside of my little autograph book. To protect the innocent, I'll not share all of the names. Ha-ha!
Starting with my grandmother, her little "Roses are red..." poem was popular back then and while I have not heard it expressed much today, I cannot help but think that it is rather timeless. The reference to my being "a nice little homemaker!" undoubtedly referred to my helping my mother.
Being the eldest child, as soon as I was able, I helped with chores around the house.
This included hanging wash out on the lines to dry (when I was tall enough to reach the clothes lines), assisting with doing the dishes, and quite early on, assisting with some of the cooking. I loved being able to help my mother and while these may have been onerous chores for some people...she always made the projects fun and exciting. She would tell stories that interested me as well as teaching me songs that we could sing and even do some harmonizing together.
Below is the sweet entry from my mother.
1950s Photo
Childhood Memories
The second entry was from my good girlfriend from my Wisconsin childhood days. We lived in the country with a lot of land surrounding us as well as wooded areas.
Gloria was a year ahead of me in age and we attended different schools. She was in public school and my brothers and I attended parochial school.
But we had each other outside of school activities and were fast friends. We had art as a common interest and were always drawing and playing with different art mediums in addition to our walking, bicycling and climbing trees. We occasionally got to spend the night at each others house and that was always a treat.
She would have been 12 years old when she inscribed this into my autograph book.
Hey, Gloria...if you ever come across reading this, what I want to know is this...was this merely an autograph or curse? I am now old and out of shape, but one thing you got wrong...girdles are no longer $2.98! Ha!
Writing pen
School Pals
Some of the other entries in the late 1950s from some of my elementary pals at St. Joan of Arc parochial school were the following:
Dear Peggy,
When your days of life are over, And the path of life you trod
May your name in Gold be written in the autograph of God.
Your classmate, Sharon G-----
Dear Peggy,
"I hope you sit on the tack of success" and rise quickly!
Your friend always, Candy C-------
Roses are red violets are blue,
Rain on the roof reminds me of you.
Drip, Drip, Drip.
Joe S-----
And to think that I really liked that guy! Ha!
To Peggy, who I hope will have all the best. Be a good nurse and by the time I'm old & gray, you can take care of me - Hurry now - I'm not far from it.
Opal H-----
McAllen, Texas
This autograph book of mine was moved along with other belongings from Wisconsin to McAllen, Texas in 1960. My maternal grandparents made the move with my family as they wanted to retire down in McAllen, after having spent numerous winters down there enjoying the nice weather and making friends.
Our homes were only one block away from one another which was nice.
There were alleys behind each of our homes where the garbage cans would be stored and picked up on the garbage pick up days. Since most of the fences were chain link back in those days, when people were in their back yards, neighborly chats could take place.
One friendly neighbor across our alley wrote the following in the text box to the right. Obviously she knew that I had my sights set on becoming a nurse, which was always my goal (after a short time in the 3rd and 4th grades of thinking that I would like to become a nun).
My dear grandmother died in 1963, the same year that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
As numbing as the latter experience was for me as a teenager in my sophomore year of high school, and as shocking as that was for the entire country, the death of my grandmother totally devastated me. She had always been like a second mother to me and I loved her dearly.
Our whole family felt bereft and my grandfather suddenly felt rudderless. After some consideration, a home was built where my grandpa could live with our family which worked well for a time.
Finally, as many of my grandparent's friends who had also moved from various parts of the country to McAllen began to resettle in an area of smaller homes with many amenities set up just for seniors...my grandpa decided to join them and relocated there.
As long as he was alive, he continued to take his prize rose cuttings and kept fresh flowers in my grandmother's urn in the mausoleum.
High School Friends
Those were some fun days!
A large group of us girls would alternate having overnight slumber parties in our parent's homes. Slumber? Little sleeping took place that is for sure! We talked, practiced dancing, listened to music, ate snacks...when I think of it today, our parents must have been saints! Surely they also got little sleep on those overnight parties.
We also went to Padre Island together for fun on the beach; attended our high school football games; competed with one another to see who would get the best grades, and generally had a great time talking about our dreams for the future.
Here are some of those entries:
Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is better and your better is the best. Best wishes to a real sweet kid, Ella
Dear Peggy,
At this time of morn, I don't know exactly what I am doing. HA HA You are a real nut, have a wonderful sense of humor, and you are an all-around nut. I hope our friendship will continue throughout the years.
Love, Brenda (1964)
Dear Peggy,
Sitting on a tombstone, A ghost came out and said: "Sorry to disturb you, But your sitting on my head!"
Love always, Susan
Dec. 30, 1963
Best of luck in everything you do.
There were several entries from my brothers at different ages...some funny and some sweet. Some people just signed their names...some with dates and others, undated.
Of course the school albums that were sold each year with the pictures of all of our teachers and class members were what most kids of junior high and high school ages were signing and in which they were leaving comments. They became the "autograph book" of choice.
I will leave you with my father's handwritten entry as the last of several samples of what people wrote in my little pink autograph book.
Did you have an autograph book when you were a child?
Memory Lane
People are still purchasing autograph books, so they have not totally gone out of fashion.
If you are a parent or grandparent with small children, think of giving them this inexpensive fun gift and fill in the first few pages for them. Then encourage them to collect other signatures and sayings from their family and friends.
In later years, this gift might bring unexpected smiles and memories to their faces as it does mine, even if they escape getting "old and out of shape" as my childhood girlfriend penned. This was quite a trip down memory lane for me! I am still smiling.
Our Move from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin to McAllen, Texas in 1960
Show with distances in
© 2012 Peggy Woods
Comments are welcomed!
I love the retro autograph books. I think these are more affordable than yearbooks of today, which were way too expensive even back when I was in high school. I would say with digital cameras kids could take pictures of their friends, and then just have them write meaningful messages in an autograph book. The yearbooks rarely were worth the money.
Peggy I have read soooo many hubs and other writings that I am not sure if I have read this But regardless, I am glad I found it and enjoyed reading it again.
It was another walk down memory lane. I still have some of my autograph books with silly and sometimes heartwarming messages written within What a treasure.
Thank you so much for sharing this ....Angels bringing blessings and hugs are on the way to you this morning ps


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Freeman described the visit as amazing. "I was able to sign my grant in aid and financial aid papers and the next thing I will be signing is my LOI back at Callaway on February 5th." Freeman and the other official visitors loved every minute of the visit. "My mom is so happy that in a little over three weeks I will be at Georgia Tech."
Tech commits Tyler Merriweather, Matthew Jordan, and Tre Jackson along with recruit Shai McKenzie made the trip to Tech for the weekend. "Tre, Mathew, and myself along with Step Durham will room together once we get to Georgia Tech. We will be on campus the 5th of January and start school the 7th."
The four commits spent a lot of time with recruit Shai McKenzie. The four want McKenzie to be their teammate. " We know he's a good running back and he was really liking the idea of being at Georgia Tech. He liked the official visit a lot and felt at ease with us."
KeShun also spent time with defensive line coach Mike Pelton. "He says he is expecting me to come in for spring practice pushing for starting time or at the worst be in the two deep at left defensive end." Freeman could also line up at outside linebacker in some of the packages. KeShun likes the idea of moving to the rush defensive end position.
Freeman feels he made the right decision to attend Georgia Tech. "I am going to play on a great football team and get one of the best educations in the country." KeShun is not sure who is more proud he or his parents. "My mom says she can't wait to see my name up on the Jumbo Tron on the starting defense video."


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Stitch Description
The garter mitered corner is a square motif perfect for domino style afghans. The effect is created by knitting decreases in the center of a garter stitch swatch. These decreases pull in the sides of the fabric, creating symmetrically angled sides. The squares are quick and easy to make, and perfect for mindless knitting in front of the TV. They can easily be made in complementary colors and assembled into an interesting pattern for a blanket.
Editor's Note: Be sure to grab your at the end of this post. It's completely FREE!
Video Tutorial
- Knit Stitch
- Purl Stitch
- k2tog
- Knit 2 Together
- k2tog tbl
- Knit 2 Together Through Back Loop
Stitch Details
Skill Level
Row Count
Number of Rows: 2
Stitch Characteristics
diamond | garter stitch | miter | shaping | square
Pattern Instructions
Cast On any odd number of stitches greater than 5
Note: Your finished square will be half the size of your cast on row on its longest side
- Row 1 (RS): knit to center 5 stitches, k2tog, k1, k2tog tbl, knit to end.
- Row 2: knit all sts, including made sts, except the centre st (axis) purl this st.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you have reached your desired length.


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|Reviews for Don't Get Sabrina Mad
| LisaJ chapter 1 . 4/8/2013
My choice for the hit list:
Kevin's Mom
The girl from Bitten
The Apple Dumpling Gang
The slaveowning witch
| Angellec chapter 1 . 3/28/2013
Gabriel please he needs to pay, and Jo can't stand her either
| angellec chapter 1 . 3/15/2013
One name Gabriel,
| silver ruffian chapter 1 . 10/14/2012
I like Sabrina and Wolfy!
Um...could you sic them on Missouri Moseley? I can't stand her.
And yes, we can NEVER have enough fics in which Castiel dies. He's the crutch on the show, not Bobby. That damn angel's got to go.
I really enjoyed this, and once again, you surprised me!
| lady voldemort2005 chapter 1 . 10/13/2012
Ha-ha! my thoughts exactly. Castiel can be very irritating.