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[quote user="V.Payne"] Agreed... I do wonder if there is any room to negogiate on the "standards" now however. I am thinking of just asking my senator to insert language that would allow a compact of states and/or groups take over a long-distance train service if they agree to a lower (say 95%) of the existing total Federal subsidy level (or better yet 75% of the existing per-person mile subsidy level). This would be written to provide an option if the cut Amtrak group gets going in coming years. There would have to be some type of bribe, say slightly higher trackage fees or a tradeoff elsewhere for the Class I railroads. There would also need to be a large loss per passenger mile insurance fund (similar to oil pipeline spill fund) with the operator covering first dollar insurance to say $100k/incident. The assumption is you could do quite a bit without cutting wages by reducing the 40% of total costs from the train operation lines that is overhead. The main reason though... just to get some movement on improving these services through simple fixes. [/quote] Unless you have a personal relationship with your senator, he or she is not likely to read your letter or take your phone call.  You will be lucky if you can get your views before a staff member, who in all likelihood will respond with a form letter.  And it may or may not address the issues you raise. You don't appear to have any real sense of how the political sytem in the United States works.  Or any other country for that matter.
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