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Amtrak funding
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Don: <br /> <br />I agree that funds are misappropriated but I think the reason is simple: Airports and bus systems, etc... are in the realm of cities. Cities like building things, especially bigger, more expensive things than their neighbors. <br /> <br />Whereas states often do not have one cohesive culture- NY, CA, heck even OR & WA have major urban/rural divides and major rivalries between cities in some cases. It's harder to get a state to agree on some capital project and then go after fed funds. <br /> <br />Lobbyist. There is a major inlfuence upon the DOT spending by lobbyists in the travel & tourism city booster field, the contractor field, the LRT construction field (read Bomberdier), etc... A train is too spread out, it's a bigger project. <br /> <br />And BTW transit is not unopposed or welcomed with open arems in all cases. There are strong anti-transit factions, who's grounds are mostly on wasteful spending. Sounds like the system you got didn't give much traction to the opposition as you actually made it on time and under budget. But, true, even amongst this opposition, there is no questioning of whether there should be public or private buses. <br /> <br />However, over the river, in WA, they have a public/private system which works light years better than ours. And we used to have a private system that worked and made a profit, as long as the dang city didn't charge them ridiculous franchise fees. Instead we drove them out of biz, shut them down, and then built a bunch of freeways in places we now wi***hey weren't- we actually tore one up- and design them with stop lights in the middle of some of them, which is just great at rush hour!
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