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Paul, I don't necessarily disagree with your points as far as they go, and I thank you for expressing them in a civilized manner, but I think you're missing much of the picture. I agree, NARP is far from perfect, but its still the most prominent rail advocacy group in the country. Their vision is often poorly presented in a "preaching to the choir" format, but they do offer a place to start the discussion. NARP's vision is one of potential, not an outright demand. Amtrak is also far from perfect, but right now it is all we've got and it does provide us with a foundation for something better.Since this is what we have to work with at the moment, I suggest it is more productive to discuss ways to make them better rather than tear them down and be left with nothing.Nobody expects that Congress or any other public agency is going to wave a magic wand and make it happen overnight. There are a lot of tough questions tough questions that need to be answered before any rail plan moves forward.Let me list a few: <ol><li>Taking into consideration all modes of transportation, and how they complement each other, and also considering the relative costs of each mode to handle increasing traffic, what do we want our passenger rail network to look like 20 years down the line?</li><li>Where are the riders and where do they want to go?</li><li>What sort of equipment and infrastructure will best serve the traveling public in answer to question #2?</li><li>What sort of management structure will best serve the system?</li><li>If we want more competition instead of the Amtrak monopoly, how do we handle rights of access to private tracks?</li><li>How do we handle funding of private tracks used for public transportation? </li><li>How do we keep freight and passenger traffic from undue interference with each other?</li><li>How do we pay for it? (I put this question last because the above questions need to be answered first. You can't figure out how to pay for something until you know what you want to pay for.)</li></ol>The problem is nobody is asking these questions. Amtrak isn't. Congress certainly isn't. NARP is at least trying, but I agree it is not presenting itself very well. But individual state governments are asking these questions, and they're concluding that in many cases rail is a cost effective way to move people. I have talked to a few rail transportation planners at the state and county levels, and they agree that both long distance and corridor trains need to be part of the overall transportation mix. They are desparate for some leadership from Congress, but so far their pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears.
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