Which presidential candidate (if elected), in your opinion, will take the best action to improve the national passenger intercity rail network?
Here’s an opinion about McCain http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/vernon/080128
Don’t vote for MCCain vote for Mitt he would be better for Amtrak than MCCain in Office.[2c]
I think Weyrich is anti-McCain because McCain has been an outspoken Amtrak critic and is not a dyed-in-the-wool, true blue conservative, so he has two strikes against him.
Can’t find much of on the others. Obama seems to be “for”, Clinton, too, but her hubby said lots of wonderful things in 1992 and delivered exactly zilch. Romney is a complete mystery. All I can find is that “he’d have an open mind.”
The only real, true, pro-passenger rail candidates in recent history that I can think of are Dukakis and Thompson.
In the end, I don’t think it will matter which of these 4 gets elected. There is too much Senate and House support for the LD trains for even McCain to do much, except to whack his favorite punching bag - the Sunset (and no, the savings won’t go for corridor development). The Dems will spend too much on healthcare et. al. for there to be enough in the coffers to do anything more than limp on with a status-quo Amtrak.
It’s interesting to me that McCain has the endorsement of Tom Kean, the almost liberal Republican ex-gov of NJ who spent like a drunken sailor on NJT! I guess there’s more to an endorsement than transportation policy…
Speaking of House and Senate, is there a House version of S294 with any chance of going forward, or will this molder around in committee until they have to start over again in both houses of Congress?
30 years and counting with one president after another.
No it does not matter. I think that passenger era ended with the Truman Presidency.
The Presidential candidates = Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey…without the circus.
… or the train! [:o)]
Lets face the truth, even most of us do like riding passenger trains to some extent, it doesn’t make any difference who gets elected as Amtrak is not a top issue here. Compared to the other issues at stake, both here and overseas, nothing is gonna happen. Amtrak may not get worse, but its not going to get better . Just be happy with what’s out there now.
McCain will be the next president IMO and that’s a good thing
There is no guarantee that McCain will win. 8 years of mr bush may bring some momentum to the Democrats.
What momentum? The Democrats demonstrated a failure in Congress all of 2007 to pass the 14 or so most necessary budget bills that is required to run the Government. Oh no, no momentum here except for a last minute omnibus bill.
As thier body language indicated looks like after the State of Union speech, they intend to sit on thier behinds until Bush is out of there in 2009.
I say Huckabee will do it but I do concede that he has a long shot. We already put up our votes in the early elections last week.
The way things are going, I think it will be GOOD that Hillary and company can run this USA and finish our downward spiral.
Here is one example:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080203/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_rdp_33
That will increase the unemployment because the only defense against Garnishment is quitting your work. (That I know of and was a Garnisher once long ago until we wrote it off)
So much for freedom of choice.
Another thing to consider is that Spouse is a Vet and only goes to the VA for medical care of any kind when necessary, we dont even participate in health care such as it is hardly at all.
As an observer from afar (does that make me more objective or just out of touch?), I think McCain is the only Republican that can beat the Democrats, whether they nominate Clinton or Obama. A Huckabee nomination would be a wet dream for the Democrats. They could put Daffy Duck against Huckabee and take 40 states. Romney would fare better than Huckabee, but would still be a long shot in the general.
My humble opinion anyway.
The State of Arizona’s economy has been the beneficiary of rail tourism for over 100 years, from the old AT&SF and SP to Amtrak today.
The state understands the dollar impact of passenger rail, even if their senior US senator does not. [8]
By nature of being a politician none will be good for Amtrak since all sny of them will propose will be political solutions and not reality based solutions. After all, to them its just tax dollars and not theirs.
Why keep on lookin’ to east? Governors and state legislatures are getting more done close to home. They are better atuned to what the political market will bear when it comes to taxing for services.
Most of the activity regarding passenger rail is coming from the states. Some states are even working in concert on interstate projects. Let the 50 laboratories of government see what works and what does not.
Amtrak needs to remain as a national system. It should remain as a skeleton bringing the various pieces together. As the flesh grows, so will demand to strengthen the tie that binds.
Thus far I have seen only one news organization even ask the candidates about their positions on transportation. That one being the the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and their curiousity might have had something to do with a highly publicized bridge incident in their neighborhood.
Each of the candidates responded to their question, but only one, Obama, mentioned rail. The paper said he would “support the development of high-speed rail networks across the country.”
I think transportation in general is not getting the attention it deserves in this or any campaign. After all, transportation affects so many other things, including energy, the environment, economics, land use, national security, mobility and quality of life. And given that in the last year we’ve seen a major bridge collapse, airline passengers stranded for hours on planes going nowhere without food or functioning toilets, an Amtrak train stranded on Donner Pass and another that can’t cross the Cascades for at least a month, you’d think that transportation would be getting more attention in this campaign.
I hate to sound a negative note, but I don’t think any of the candidates have a clue concerning transportation. If they do, it’s not on their short list of priorities. They have no understanding of the need for an enhanced and comprehensive Amtrak. They live in a totally isolated, insulated world. I don’t think that will get any better any time soon.
Most countires around the world that have national systems have either bailed out, are in the process of bailing out or would love to bail out. That ought to be a reality check for anyone proposing a bigger tax supported boondoggle. When the roads get clogged so that rail is faster. When gas gets to a point that going by train has an economic advantage to the consumer. When railroads or operators can make a profit running trains it will be back and not before all three are met.
Thanks to lattasnip9 for bringing up this topic. What I can say is that, yes, McCain hates Amtrak. This is enough of a reason for me NOT to vote for him (I haven’t decided yet whether to support a Democrat candidate or to vote against all of them for different reasons). However, it is important to remember that the U.S. President does not have an absolute power. As mentioned above, Congress has much more power over Amtrak issues than President does. Of course, if President is supportive, it is easier for Congress to come up with various pro-Amtrak legislations. But even if President is anti-rail, he can’t just block an appropriations bill for this reason only. That would be politically irresponsible. President can threaten to veto a nice authorization or any other kind of a bill specifically addressed to Amtrak if he does not like it - that’s why it’s better to have a pro-rail President who would not do that. But, you know something, Congress has power to override a veto - if the bill is supported by a significant majority of both houses (I don’t remember what’s the minimum percentage qualifying for that). But, as far as annual appropriations is concerned, the Congressional support for Amtrak is big enough to provide at least a minimum level needed. Besides, the Bush administration has been proposing inadequate figures every year every year since Bush became president. Three years ago he even proposed a ZERO amount to Amtrak (as Reagan did every year during his second term). But common sense prevails in Congress, and the figure is always raised to what Amtrak needs.
Another important thing to remember is that it’s virtually impossible to shut down Amtrak immediately in its present form, since this would cause chaos in the entire Northeast corridor, as well as in some other places where Amtrak shares its stations with commuter rail (e.g. Chicago).