Effort to increase federal subsidies for Amtrak fails (Bryd amendment)

[loritooker]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14160694&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept_id=465812&rfi=6

[Cha]

1. Why don't the fascists want to help the

train company?

Is it because that would hurt their precious airlines? There's enough people to go around for all forms of transport!

[saltpoint]

2. Today the Senate edged closer to drilling for --

-- finite fossil fuel in Alaska and simultaneously see the defeat of funds for sustainable mass transit (Amtrak).

The Congress needs a good sittin' down and talkin' to.

[sweettater]

3. No, actually

they need a good ass wupp'in. ;)

[saltpoint]

4. Yep -- an ass wuppin' it is.

[4_Legs_Good]

5. I couldn't agree more

I'm really getting angry, not just frusterated now.

david

[Catt03]

6. I thought Amtrak

was a National Railroad service subsidized by the federal government?

So, does this mean that it will be privatized...up for sale...like bought by someone like Murdock or Haliburton or any one of the Bush pioneers?

This administration is selling off our land, our transportation, our security and our health. Good grief!

[rodeodance]

7. i do not think any of the admendments passed (bad day for all of us)

[AndyTiedye]

8. Bye Bye Amtrak

we'll miss ya :cry:

[Vogon_Glory]

9. Amtrak Funding: Ideology Triumphs Over Common Sense

It looks like right-wing ideologues' opposition to Amtrak may very well triumph over common sense. Right-wing ideologues like Norquist have had it in for Amtrak for over twenty years.

Never mind that those trains are actually used. Never mind that those trains go places where puddle-jumper airlines don't fly and even intercity buses don't run. Never mind that many of the long-distance trains connect urban corridors.

It looks like people seeking to use common-carrier transportation are going to get kicked in the teeth by the Bush Leaguers, Ivory-tower "conservative" ideologues, and their Banana Republican congressmen. In recent months, we've seen Greyhound announce numerous route cuts and towns and small cities cut from its network. We've also watched the price of gasoline rise above $50/barrel and market reports say that it might spike at $80/barrel. We've also watched several air carriers' financial circumstances teeter towards bankruptcy.

People who claim that nobody uses Amtrak are grossly misinformed or deliberately lying through their teeth at worst. I recently made arrangements to ride the Sunset from San Antonio to Orlando. Six weeks from my departure the sleepers were already sold out and I could only get coach from New Orleans--and the Sunset is supposedly one of Amtrak's least-ridden trains.

If Amtrak goes, we may never get it back. If someone had been able to run a privatized passenger train like Virgin in the UK, I'm sure we would have heard serious financial discussions and bidding before now. Amtrak is a tenant on most of its routes, renting from freight railroads, and most would be unwilling to let long-distance passenger trains come back--as the demise of the Norfolk Southern steam excursion program and charters on CSX would indicate.

I will try to do what I can to campaign for continued rail service. But I'm beginning to feel that our bamboozled fellow citizens are about to discover the consequences for voting for so-called "conservatives."