The whole of transportation in the US: air, water, road, and rail; freight and passenger; private and government owned and/or operated all have to come to the table of planning, financial, and other minds and a plan made. We have come almost 250 years of social and private enterprises working together and against each other leaving us with a hodge podge of services and organizations. Any argument about subsidies is mute simply because we are so knee deep in two and a half centuries of them that there is no sense arguing: they are there, some are hidden, but they exist and have brought us to where we are. We can argue all we want…but there has to be a will and a way at the top to change or ratify or justify or eliminate them. The US economy has always been a consortium and partnership of private enterprise and various government levels and railroads are just a small part…
As I have said before, Don, I don’t believe Amtrak’s attempts to balance priorities, to respond to diverse needs, is a mistake. In fact I believe it is essential that Amtrak do this if it is to maintain sufficient support in the country to continue.
I appreciate the fact that you have a different perspective and that you provide an insightful and well informed analysis of what you believe Amtrak should be doing. But with all due respect up to now there has been a national consensus in support of the way Amtrak handles itself. It is not clear that such a consensus exists for your proposals.
John
Well, Lion, I’m glad that someone is getting some benefit from I-99. It just is not at all clear to me that this is an appropriate use of Federal funds. If you live along the route I hope your drinking water has not become like battery acid.
John
I live in Virginia now.
And it was a fairly small area (and hilariously visible too) that had the pyrite issue.
To be frank, it was preposterous that one of the largest universities in the nation could only be accessed by two lane roads and that there was no north-south interstate in the west-central part of the state.
Well, I am glad that you live out of that small pyrite area. Unfortunately, there are people who do live there who are left with the problems and risks.
Should the Federal Government build interstate highways up to every state university in the country as it has in Pennsylvania? I understand that in Virginia there is so little money to repair I-95 that the Governor wants to put a toll on it.
Really? Consensus? I hope you don’t mean the occasional opinion polls that ask roughly: “Do you think we should have more and/or better train service?”
I would answer “YES!” to that. I fact, that’s what I’m advocating!
Bud Shuster knew how to bring home the bacon! As bad as I-99 was, redoing US22 over the mountain from Duncansville west to Cresson cost a pretty penny, too…
No, Don. That is not what I mean. What I mean is that it is well known that Amtrak gets annual subsidies. And while Amtrak has its critics including strong critics they have never been able to stop Amtrak from continuing on in the way that you so strongly disagree with.
John