The book adds nothing to the debate on Amtrak; uses statistical correlation to substantiate the obvious (i.e. -- Trains are most often supported by people who live in large urban areas); and, generally loses the reader somewhere after the first chapter.
Much of the analysis he outlines is out-of-date and offers very, very little constructive support on how a passenger rail system should and could be built.
If Mr. Nice, who obviously is well-educated and statistically gifted, ever endeavors to write again on Amtrak, may I offer two thoughts. First, ask the question, "How will my paper help frame the contemporary debate on Amtrak," and second, "Who can I influence with it."
Absent these issues, chain me to a tree, so I can save the woods from another useless academic paper.
