I would like to know why is he wanting to Slash Amtrak funding by 400 Million dollars and give it to the Highway people. President Obama’s should be Amtrak Best Friend after 8 years of Bush. What does Cheerleader Joe Amtrak Biden sleeping at the wheel again?[2c]
OK where did you see/hear this “news”??
He just campaigned to get support from those that are pro rail. Anyone that actually put any thought into it didn’t fall for his campaign statements concerning Amtrak.
Its on the Friday newswire about Amtrak.
How about because it’s a bad investment? The operating subsidy remains. It’s the capital that’s being “slashed”. I noticed that some of the stimulus money is going to fix Amfleet cars to use for charter and holiday service. That translates to a million dollars a car for a car that might make ten trips a year. If you filled 50 seats at $100 each, that’s $50,000/year in revenue. Would you invest any of YOUR money in such a scheme?
Obama may be a typical politico that says one thing & does another.
Cutting Amtrak $400M while the Clunker for Cash program gets $2Bil fits.
don’t forget the Highway Fund is going broke as we speak. They even cut the Grade Crossing fund.
They wanted to divert $Bil from the High Speed Rail fund to the Highway Fund.
Congress & Obama could be getting an earful for their summer vacations. They may need it.
This is the first I have heard of that, and an attempt to search for it turned up only articles about President Bush trying to cut Amtrak funding and being fought by Congress.
Where can I find the source of this news?
Mr. Oberstarr must really be in a dither. After his work to add the extera amount it suddenly gets cut. Of course the final outcome may be different?
I still cannot find anything anywhere to support your claim that President Obama is taking money from Amtrak to support highways.
Can you post a link?
Let’s see…does the highway trust fund operate at a profit? Hmmm…must not be profit but return on investment…so I suppose it is measured not in money but rather in votes and other support.
I don’t know how much Mr. Obama has to do with this, but here is the link to the Newswire article: http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=5395
Thank you for the link, but it’s a subscriber only link, so I cannot open it. I only subscribe to Model Rail Roader, not to Trains.
Can you pass on some of the relevant parts of the article?
Sorry, I should have condensed the news on this topic from Friday’s Newswire.
I do not recall seeing any statement from Mr. Obama calling for reduced support of Amtrak, but, from the report on Newswire, he is calling on both the House and the Senate to reduce the money going to Amtrak for both capital and operations. Both bodies would shortchange Amtrak $27 million (from the requested amount) for operation in the next fiscal year, and the House would approve $453 million less than Amtrak requested for capital, and the Senate would cut only $381.4 million from that grant.
I am not sure how my current representative thinks, but I know my senior senator has no use for Amtrak. He should travel in civilized comfort between Salt Lake City and Washington instead of getting there yesterday.
Johnny
The only person who seems to be making any sense today on this thread is Phoebe Vet, who is asking us “Hey wait a moment, folks. Why don’t we find out exactly what it is that the President is proposing and Congress is voting on before taking our characteristic trolling positions pro and con on Amtrak.”
Civilized comfort. That is a phrase that evokes images of Simpler Times, when the sun never set on the British Empire and all that.
The British built a prototype of an airliner called the Bristol Brabazon. The thing was the size of an Airbus A-380 Super Jumbo, but it was somewhat lighter in weight, powered by 8 of the radial piston engines of the size where 4 powered a DC-7 or a Super Constellation. It carried only 100 passengers on its two decks, but it carried them (slowly) in the civilized comfort of private rooms and berths.
Do we really want a United States Senator from the Mountain West commuting between the home state and DC on Amtrak sleeping cars, with a train change and possible layover in Chicago? Is that a proper use of time for someone who has to be in DC for votes and committee meetings and in the home state to serve constituents? OK, maybe to do this once a term, to get out among the denizens of fly-over country, but are you really serious that this is how such a person, essentially with the breadth of responsibility of the CEO of a major corporation only serving the people in an elected office, should spend their time?
Are people around this forum really serious about getting some kind of passenger train revival going to meet the challenges of a resource-constrained world, or are we a bunch of romantics who think that
No, And that’s a problem. You should have to tally up all the costs and benefits for a highway project, just like a rail project. But, generally when things get way, way out of whack, unless there’s some quid pro quo, it’s pretty obvious that the money’s not being well spent.
Paul, in one of my rants concerning passenger travel on another thread here, I make a point that we cannot be thinking choo choo trains of the past century but look to the future technologies and social needs. We cannot have a “romantic” or nostalgaic approach to passenger rail service but a realistic application of new technologies serving new economic, environmental, and social needs properly marketed and serviced. I get very dismayed when people, especially railfans, wax nostalgic or just want a train to run because they want a train to run.
Paul
I remember years ago traveling wstbound on the real Canadian and sitting in the lounge on the first evening listening to four gentlemen who were sales peolple for an eastern Canadian Company. They were relaxing having a few drinks befor going to bed, likewise I was doing the same. I was soon part of there conversation and I aked why they were traveling by train when the plane was so much faster and more convenient. They said there Company did not allow there sales people to travel only by train as there sales figures beat the competition by 50% year after year and the Company owner felt that his sales people arrived more relaxed and ready to do business. Two of these sales people were going to Vancouver and two were going to Calgary they would spend a week covering there territory and then fly back to Toronto, they had the option of returning by train if they so wished and most usually did. Always thought that was a very civilized way to do business in the jet age. .
Often the most efficient (i.e., cheapest) path to progress is to start over. Perhaps it would be best to scrap Amtrak and start a real passenger rail net that can use 21st century technology rather than dwell in the nostalgia of the first half of the last.
I even looked on the Senate website without being able to find anything that fits this newswire story.
I hope that someone who subscribes to that newswire will keep this thread updated.
Maybe this was part of the same story about Jeff Goldblum dying in New Zealand (or was it Australia) a couple weeks ago?? [D)]