July 19, 2006
 
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Amtrak Spokesperson Responds to Kinchen Editorial
 
Dear Mr. Kinchen:
 
Thank you for your July 9, 2006 editorial opposing outsourcing of Amtrak's rservation system. Whatever form such action takes. it is a bad idea. Ms. Richardson's comment that Amtrak's reservations labor costs are among the highest in the industry is more a commentary on the low wage rates of reservations centers in general than it is about Amtrak's "high" costs. Of course, Amtrak could reduce its reservations costs somewhat by re-locating its reservations centers from expensive cities to more moderately priced places such as cities in West Virginia or Ohio and still keep the jobs in this country.
 
A small request: Please re-program your spellcheckers -- electronic and/or human -- to absolutely reject "Amtrack" as a valid word and to accept only "Amtrak" as the correct spelling of the name of our national rail passenger service system.
 
Yours truly,
 
J. Howard Harding
 
Akron, OH 44313-5327 -- "Capital of West Virginia" -- at least in the 1930-1940-1950 era.
 
hardiho@earthlink.net