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Herb, I consider the funds for the highway system, including the Hound and the 'Ways share, to be comming from the highway users not from Washington. This is because the highway construction and maintanence funds are collected from user taxes at the pump. The sad bit is that the lions share could be handled at the state level if somebody could cut through the politics. As most of y'all know, I am against all the subsidy funding on the federal level for transportation (again the highway money is not what I consider a subsidy) but when you hear the stuff like the $500+ million for African AIDS education mentioned above it makes the Amtrak stuff sound like small potatoes (Yea, with an 'E'). At least we get something for the Amtrak money. But I think that allowing Amtrak to perform as a private organization will ultimately lead to the best passenger rail system because that is the best model for accountability. Without that, the system will never be required to improve to meet customer demand. As long as it is controlled by congress, it is just a social experiment. I believe the proper thing to do in the short run is to get with the states and regionalize Amtrak. I believe there is a sincere need for passenger rail service in the NEC. But I think the residents of that area should bear the cost. I don't care what mechanism they use to collect the funds because I don't live in the NEC states but if I did I would want the cost to be substantially carried by the users. There is something to be said for the benifit to the highway users since this takes commuters off the highways, but I think the impact of this is widely overstated in this forum. Based on the news about airlines and Amtrak, it sounds like we may have too much transportation in this country since the supply is greater than the demand. Maybe if one of the players gets out of the game the others will be able to stay in. In this respect, it is a bad time for Gunn to be thinking of playing his trump card. Finally, I don't buy the argument that 'They do it in Europe and Japan and ...' We have different market dynamics in this country so we need to find the solution that fits us. Mind you, I am not saying that because they do it in Europe it can't be good for us. I am just saying that we need the solution that is best for the US. Thanks for indulging me in a small sermon. - Ed
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