Mitt Romney vows to Eliminate Amtrak

[Anti redneck]

Face it, if Romney gets elected, we're doomed. Not only in Amtrak, but in many other things as well.

[Ocklawaha]

^^ I dunno. As much as I disagree with almost everything Obama, Carter seemed 10 times worse.

At least under Obama we dont have a little dip-sh!t 3rd world country pushing us around & holding 52 of our countrymen hostage.

On the other hand, unemployment remains sky high and gas is going up again. Memories of ol' Jimmy

Well Obama hasn't trashed Amtrak, just largely ignored it. Mr. Peanut did a number on passenger rail, gutting a system that to be honest, the Republicans created. Those of you not old enough to remember, Amtrak was supposedly formed by the Richard Nixon DOT, to 'rescue' passenger train service in America from the railroads. Day one of Amtrak operation saw the wholesale slaughter of about 7/8Th's of all remaining trains. When recession hit hard during the Carter years, he allowed himself to be outmaneuvered by the Republicans and agreed to sacrifice several important train routes. The idea that they only cut poor performers is bogus, in fact several of those trains were at the top of their game, and the Lone Star was 7Th in the entire system in ridership. Amtrak will never be successful without a comprehensive network and enough frequencies to make it convenient.

President Carter was faced with an upcoming election and a poor record, he wanted to make it look like he was doing something. Amtrak, had been created and sold to the public with the notion that passenger trains could be "profitable," but in an environment where air and highway competition is both directly and indirectly subsidized that's just not likely without some form of direct subsidy. Jimmy Carter wanted to make a big show of chopping that 'huge budget saving subsidy.' In spite of surging ridership numbers today, the system still suffers from the disconnect caused by the Carter cuts.

Today we continue to tell the system to operate with the 'end points' dictated by Congress and a mandate to make money. When friend John Mica called Amtrak a Soviet style railroad, he was correct, we dictate the product produced, then dictate that said product will make money, there is NO FREE MARKET in American passenger rail... But John? Guess which team is making it a 'Soviet style railroad?' With the exception of Carter and Clinton, it's not the Democrats.

I believe the correct thing to do would be to tell Amtrak that as the economy improves we'll increase their budget 3x over... BUT we expect them to create an interconnected system 3x bigger then today's. The next step is simply to get out of the way and allow professional railroaders create a state-of-the-art national system. This should be done with an eye on an exit strategy for the government, perhaps something along the line of allowing the railroads to reenter the business absorbing the Amtrak routes they operate with a mix of state and federal incentives that would keep the trains running, profitable and the system expandable.

[finehoe]

Yeah, but Obama said the "Private Sector is doing fine". LOL!!!!

Corporate profit margins just hit an all-time high. Companies are making more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. Yet conservatives say that companies are suffering from "too much regulation" and "too many taxes."

Of course never let the facts get in the way of what you "believe".

[Ocklawaha]

Can you spell HIJACKED?

[Adam W]

I think you just did!

Quick - mention a street car. That's at least remotely related to the topic