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The problem with Amtrak is a lack of vision of and for the future. The Senate keeps bailing out Amtrak, at least for operational funds, but the House attempts to kill Amtrak every year. Why? Obviously, Amtrak does not provide the proper service in enough House districts. Why should Congressmen vote for Amtrak if Amtrak does not provide the proper service in their district? Fortunately, Amtrak does provide service in enough states, but is the service proper? Along the northeast corridor, Amtrak's service is proper. However, in states like Texas, the service is not proper! Amtrak's attempts to run an improper service to most of the states with obsolete equipment is the reason why so many are opposed to Amtrak in the Congress and the reason why Amtrak does not turn an operational profit. The sooner Amtrak gets the vision of high speed rail, the better Amtrak will be in relation to Congressional funding and operational profits. Americans do want to take the train when the train is fast and the service is proper. The northeast corridor ridership levels prove this point. Amtrak needs to sell the Congress and the American people high speed rail. To do so will require a ten to twenty year plan of expanding high speed rail to all areas of the country, similar to the interstate highway system. The costs are insignificant to the costs of adding more lanes to interstates or building new interstate highways. The costs will be less than what the DOT spends on airports each year, much less highways. In fact, the costs of building a 7,000 mile network of high speed rail will decrease the costs of airports and highways significantly, so much that we will actually be cutting DOT's budget in the long run. A half century ago, the Pennsylvania and Santa Fe railroads ran ads promoting transcontinental service in 48 hours. Notice it takes Amtrak three days to do the same today. Therefore, we have lost one days service in half a century. On the other hand, with high speed rail, we could have transcontinental service in one day! "That's right, from New York City to Los Angeles in one day." Imagine how long it would take to get to Chicago from New York City, or to Dallas from New York City. While the airlines have the Congress baffooned today, frankly, the airlines are running out of air space, terminal gates, and runways at the major airports, not to mention the fact the airlines are having problems financing new aircraft. Eventually, the Congress will be forced to build high speed rail. Why not now?
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