I’m glad to see that not a single harbor in the entire US will get a cent of funding. That way all the people that get anything that is imported will pay for it. Next not a single cent to any airports at all so that those that choose to fly have to pay the full cost for the functioning of both the airports and the air traffic control system. Next the moment Romney cuts off funding for Amtrak then all Amtrak trains should shut down and all routes run by Amtrak workers should be shut down and can’t operate until the entire system is sold off to some other entity.
Of course what was left out of the Republican platform was the fact that they push for a private company to take over Amtrak “BUT” the Federal Government will the subsidize that private operation.
Public transport in a huge and comparatively thinly populated country can never recover all costs including infrastructure and make profits as if passengers would have to pay the full costs for a ticket they would be forced off using it. Maybe this is what some politicians want: immobile average citizens.
There is a critical issue that has been overlooked.
Oil is a finite commodity that is in an irreversible decline.
If this country is going to live through the time that the oil is gone, we will DESPERATELY need the trains to get us through.
Railroads, as I have mentioned in posts on this Web site, and others; are capable of having their entire trackage electrified. This means that electricity can be generated from every source of energy known to mankind.
Also, I have mentioned that trains, because all trackage can be electrified; have the ONLY ability to go from coast to coast NONSTOP WITHOUT BURNING ONE DROP OF OIL FOR ENERGY.
Destroy Amtrak and other passenger train services; and you destroy the ONLY transportation that has any chance of saving this country from the time that the oil is gone!
To the comments about NARP, I was a member for several years, but NARP is virtually owned by Amtrak. The Sunset East has been gone for over 7 years now, and barely a peep has come out of NARP, other than a web page. NARP did provide honest numbers back then, and stated that 46% of the Sunset’s gross came from points east of NewOrleans, or 26% of the route. I have never rode any Amtrak train that was not sold out, and since we choose to go sleeper, we pay more than airfare for our space, but it is worth it. We get there relaxed, and we aren’t subject to pat-downs, x-rays, et. al. that are useless, at an airport. I have no problem with cutting the Amtrak subsidy, – AS LONG AS ALL SUBSIDIES TO ALL TRANSPORTATION IS CUT.
As a retired railroad man, receiving a pension from the Railroad Retirement Board, there is no way on this planet that I will vote for anyone, of any party, that is pushing to cut off Amtrak. Amtrak does nothing for me, there is no train that I regularly use, now that the Sunset Ltd. is cut at NewOrleans, but there are nearly 20,000 employees that would be on the street, and not paying into what pays my pension. Now some will say that so what, the RRB will be solvent for another 25 years and that is so, but what then?
Bob essentially writes about a headline that did not occur at the convention. This story rehashes other articles that came many months before. Take the political arguments out of the discussion. If you can’t, then there is no rational way to resolve the issue: Amtrak has recently seen near record ridership and still can’t make it’s operation profitable. It never will be in the way it is run now - insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. It is time to make a change and eliminate subsidies, be it $4 or $400 per passenger. The US Government in great part, under Johnson, destroyed passenger train service in the US by revoking first class mail contracts and levying outrageous property taxes on the rail companies’ land. How about a radical proposal? It is time to remove the government from the equation. Great Britian did a great thing in the mid '90s by dissolving the national trains and allowing the re-opening private service. I say remove all US transportation subsidies and require people to pay for the services that they use, be it rail, road, or air. Level the playing field and let the best service, in the eyes of the customer, win.
Small minded comments like those above who skewer public transit funding over all others deserve who they elect. As Mr Eugene above states he doesn’t think it is any government responsibility to pay for me to get to work. Ok I will buy that argument, if you stop using my tax dollars to pay for highways and airports and corporate welfare. Any ways I would rather stay home and collect my welfare than get to work. Thank you Eugene for your contribution to my welfare. Joe k
Small minded comments like those above who skewer public transit funding over all others deserve who they elect. As Mr Eugene above states he doesn’t think it is any government responsibility to pay for me to get to work. Ok I will buy that argument, if you stop using my tax dollars to pay for highways and airports and corporate welfare. Any ways I would rather stay home and collect my welfare than get to work. Thank you Eugene for your contribution to my welfare. Joe k
Small minded comments like those above who skewer public transit funding over all others deserve who they elect. As Mr Eugene above states he doesn’t think it is any government responsibility to pay for me to get to work. Ok I will buy that argument, if you stop using my tax dollars to pay for highways and airports and corporate welfare. Any ways I would rather stay home and collect my welfare than get to work. Thank you Eugene for your contribution to my welfare. Joe k
Small minded comments like those above who skewer public transit funding over all others deserve who they elect. As Mr Eugene above states he doesn’t think it is any government responsibility to pay for me to get to work. Ok I will buy that argument, if you stop using my tax dollars to pay for highways and airports and corporate welfare. Any ways I would rather stay home and collect my welfare than get to work. Thank you Eugene for your contribution to my welfare. Joe k
I think the GOP should be more interested in creating jobs here in the USA and increasing revenue here and less about cutting vital programs as Amtrak is. A midwest person here said why should he pay for a New Yorker to ride a train, than why should a New Yorker pay for his interstate highway he drives on, or subsidise the airport he flies out of?
The New York Times reports today that the “US Is Near Pact To Cut $1 Billion From Egypt Debt,” “To Bolster Democracy.” It would be nice to have a little democracy here in the US! Many people of modest means depend heavily upon public transportation like Amtrak, but these people are not big contributors to political campaigns, so their needs and wants are of little note to the elite policymakers. It doesn’t matter who’s “in charge,” Democrats or Republicans; the results are exactly the same- the US will spend $1 Trillion per year on empire, notwithstanding the desires of the populace.
We can argue to we are blue whether it is $40 or $4 per passenger…that is not as relavant as the public must somehow accept the idea that ALL modes of transportation are subsidized by “general purpose revenues” or what are commonly called taxes…as in property tax or income tax or sales tax…itis not just rail service. Regarding the fee for service proposed privately run airport security service…will they strip me twice if I pay double…oooh good!!!
It is sad that the GOP can’t see the forest for the trees. Privatization is not going to provide a first class rail passenger service which is vitally needed. Remember 9/11 when planes couldn’t fly, who will take up the slack if we have no passenger rail? They ought to take a lesson from the State of Washington.
Why is the service on Amtrak so bad, there are no riders, why are there no riders on Amtrak, the service is bad? Catch-22 in rail transportation. We need the GOP to clear its myopic vision of Amtrak. This from a staunch Republican.
The GOP(gasoline-only-powered) showed heir true hypocrisy in the transportation platform they recently adopted at their convention in Tampa. The platform calls for protecting funds that have been “earmarked” for highways.That runs contrary to their commitment to ending earmarks.
Also, this platform called for spending cuts for Amtrak, public transit, bike paths, and throwing back to privatized airport screenrs, similar to the kind of service that got us in trouble for 9/11 in the first place. I like what USA Today said about airport screeners-don’t unionize, don’t privatize.
The platform also called for INCREASED SPENDING for new roads. Talk about who the big spenders are! There is also NO COMMITMENT to repair the exisiting infrastructure. This policy only benefits the toll hogs who want to line their own pockets at taxpayer expense while ringing up the debt that is borrowed to build these greedways that nobody uses. Who likes to pay tolls, which are really a road surtax? You’re nuts if you do.
Many new toll road projects around the nation have been a big bust from the start, and big trucks will find a way to avoid them to help keep their costs of doing business down. Most new toll orads are being built at the behest of greedy land developers, motor sports speed buffs, and the interests of those who falsely think gambling and caSINos will fix all the financial ills; on the contrary, they have created more, and needles to say the crime that goes along with it!
The GOP budget cuts to transportation are nothing more than a wad of spit in a huge bucket that will dry up before they have a chance to spit in it again. They have no guts to go after the new high-dollar highwayprojects.If more spending cuts are needed to keep fiscally irresponsible spending open for more greedways, what is next? Cut the pedestrian projects and out law walking?
Why is everyone hung up on a few million dollars spent on public transportation per year when we flung millions each day to the wind in Iraq for 9 years. Get over it folks. Every transportation network is subsidized by someone. In addition to my gas taxes, my property taxes to my hometown city council and county paid for the reconstruction of the county road past our house into a city street when we were annexed. Plus, I directly paid another $14,500 in assessments. So, should my neighbors and I put up a toll booth and squeeze all those freeloaders using our road to drive into town from the country each morning on their way to work?
Mr. Guse:
I usually have to drive to work because my job can take me to appointments or events miles away that pop up in moments. However, I ride my bike to work when I can, such as evenings or weekends, over trails stretching 4 miles across my hometown of 15,000 people.
I ask, what would our traffic clogged cities be like if we ended all public transportation and forced those people onto the already crawling, decaying highway network. Get ready for highway gridlock with workers unable to get to work efficiently, businesses unable get their raw materials on time or send their products out efficiently. Businesses in the Twin Cities of Minnesota are pushing for more commuter and light rail because they understand those issues and the benefit their companies experience. And, if you believe the GOP, many of those CEOs must be Republican. Ironic, isn’t it?