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Most of us who believed that Amtrak was doomed from the start, believed the Federal Government could not run anything right, because political compromises rarely work in the real world. Obviously, we were right! Mother Nature simply compromises with no one - Politician or not! Nixon nationalized passenger service in order to relieve a so-called private industry of a money losing public responsibility. It was not intended to make money. No private entity was will to run passenger trains then and none are willing to now - unless subsidized. Amtrak was therefore subsidized from the start. The silly pipe dream of a profitable Amtrak is only a recent invention of a glory seeking prior Amtrak CEO. Nixon was the only President who ever supported Amtrak. Every other president has tried to kill it and was refuted by a congress afraid of their own constituents. The only reason Amtrak still exists at all is continued public political support. The public wants passenger trains. It is the beholden politicians who don't. In California, A major passenger renasonce is underway, started by the initiative process a dozen or so years ago - not by politicans. Billion dollar passenger rail bonds were passed, while legislated highway bond issues went down to defeat at the polls. After that, to get their highways approved the highway lobby rascals added rail money to highway bonds so they too would pass. Oh well, we've now got a booming passenger service, even during a recession. Mr Gunn can do nothing now except to provide life support to Amtrak and hope the patient survives its deathbed. He is in a box, put there by beholden politicians who want us dependant on only one mode of transportation (airlines for long haul and automobles for short haul). Why? Far more money was and will be spent on the highway system, air infrastructure, cars, trucks, and airplanes than ever would have been required for improved rail service. More money to the beholden and their lobbyist supporters is what its about! As to the Administration's plan, pawning it off to the states amounts to nothing more than re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Interstate transportation simply cannot be arranged without significant Federal involvement. That's why the framers of the Constitution set up a strong Federal Government in the first place. The admisistration's plan shirks its constitutionally required duty to govern and provde for interstate commerce. It will be dead on arrival in congress anyway, unless it is significantly revised. Having said all that, it is still very obvious that major reform is necessary. The states should be more involved, like California is. But the problem will not be solved by changing who pays - any more than changing who cares for health care will fix that problem. Basic structural changes in the industry and in the infrastructure are needed. One acute need is for a method of dispatching that gives priority to scheduled trains, while unscheduled trains generally run on a first come first serve basis. This may be require an independant dispatching authority on any line where multiple entities run trains. The railroads will probably refuse. So what! Force it on them - they are all publically chartered anyway - and they all want and are receiving publically funded right of way improvements already. If they want to get - they have to give a little too. Another need is sufficient public capital funding to allow a marketable and financially viable service to be provided. Two or three trains a day on all routes, with at least one day train available at every station is minimum. Also the station at days end should have hotel accomodations available within walking distance, and a continuation schedule available the next morning. We could go on and on, but IF the administration and any other politican wants my continued support, they better get real - real soon. I suggest all the traveling public take the same attitude, and let it be heard in Washington and in the State Houses. RmC
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