Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I would have to agree with you that they have maybe a little too much coverage of Amtrak, but like others have said, that is NEWS right now. I personally have very little interest in passenger rail, having grown up along an old Great Northern branchline, but I understand the importance of it. I remember feeling sadness when I saw rusting hulks of GN passenger cars spotted on out of the way sidings. CN, which also used to run passenger rail through my hometown, discontinued its regular Winnipeg passenger train when I was a young child. Everyone was quite angry because it meant we would have to drive our private cars 2 1/2 hours to get to Winnipeg, which was the only real metro area we had easy access to in Northern MN. Before that, it was only a nominal fare and a nice relaxing train ride to the heart of Winnipeg. I do however feel that it is vital to our national security and our freedom that we maintain a nationwide passenger rail system. In WWI and WWII, the railroads moved our armies and their weapons across the country. After September 11, it was about the only thing moving too. EVERY industrialized nation in the world that I am aware of has a highly developed national passenger network. I would be surprised if any of them are profitable, but they do the job they were built to do. I think our national system is an embarrassment beside those of Europe and Japan. I think the best argument for railroading, whether freight or passenger, is why run hundreds of vehicles burning gas/fuel from point a to point b to transport x number of people or y tons of freight, when one train can do the same thing? I am generally a conservative on most issues, but I feel that our government has to provide this service and we should be willing to pay for it. I saw an editorial cartoon a while back in which a person sitting on a station platform looked down the tracks and saw an airplane rolling down the tracks toward him. He said "I guess Amtrak finally figured out how to get federal funding". Think about it... Why does our government spend billions bailing out the airlines which many people never use in their life, and let passenger rail twist in the wind? This is just my opinion...
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag