Amtrak Funding to be Signed by President

[SFbrkmn]

The Amtrk funding was signed by Bush on Oct 16th and was part of the Rail Safety Improvement Act 0f 2008 which contains several major provisions. The Amtrak part was added to the bill and to be truthfull, is more or less pork spending. Don't get me wrong, its good to see Amtrk is getting what it needs to make major upgrades that the operation needs. I will be taking my yrly cross country Amtrk cruise in March and looking forward to it. I think many out there fall into a false sense of security in thinking that if Mr.O is elected, this will help out Amtrak. That is not a given and remains to be seen on how he would deal w/ the issue.  Looking back at the history of how the company was treated, the worst treatment Amtrk ever received was by a Dem Congress & a Dem President in 1979 which resulted in four long distance trains being abolished. Anothr shoddy treatment took place just after the 1994 mid term elections when the Demo's were outsted and several cutbacks in funding resulted a a few trains abolished and the period where service on some routes was cut to 3 or 4 days a wk and one needed a calender just to plan a trip. We may know more in two wks..then again, maybe we won't on how the future holds for psgr rail.

[Anonymous]

According to an article appearing in today's Washington Post, some economists are predicting that the U.S. will run a federal budget deficit of $1 trillion in the first fiscal year of the new President's term.  This will be the largest federal deficit, as a per cent of national income, since 1946. 

The U.S. national debt stands at $10.3 trillion or an average of approximately $85,000 per household.  Adding in mortgage, credit card, consumer, and state and local debt brings the average debt load to approximately $207,000.  I dare say that there are not many heads of households who could pay off this debt in the near future.Passenger trains make sense in relatively short, high density corridors.  But long distance trains, which are used by less than one per cent of those traveling by commercial carrier, make no sense.  If they were eliminated, Amtrak would save approximately $500 million per year, which would reduce significantly the amount of federal subsidy that it requires.

 

[matthewsaggie]

While I'm an Obama supporter, I would not hold my breath on lots of $ for Amtrak, despite the new authorization. With federal finances as they are going to be in the coming 4 years, it will be a struggle to get the $1.5B that we Amtrak currently gets. Perhaps Amtrak could start a subsidary company- like a bank.

[Nataraj]

Hopefully We get Obama/Biden into office. Biden's son is on Amtrak's board and Biden takes the train to/from work. We could very possibly see some amtrak improvements.

[conrailman]

Bush today sign the Amtrak bill into Law today, but the fight is not over yet. Amtrak is good for another 5 year.

[matthewsaggie]

Remember, this is an authorization bill-not real cash, just a spending "plan" for the next 5 years. It's not an appropriations bill. Appropriations are still subject to the annual budget fight.  

[Missabe Fan]

I see where George is going to sign the bill to fund Amtrak. From what I understand he didn't have much of a choice, as there were enough votes to override any veto.