Tell Me, People

Tell me that people don’t want to ride Amtrak. Tell me that people don’t want passenger rail.

Travel Industry Wire reports in this article of Sunday, October 23, 2005, that Amtrak again beat its previous fiscal year’s ridership. That fact alone should tell some of the ostrich legislators on both sides of the aisle that people will use Amtrak when Amtrak has the routes, scheduling and fare structure that could be created by proper federal government support.

Note to all Senate and House Dunderheads: Amtrak could be another Conrail, if you let it. Remember Conrail? That was the freight railroad system consisting of nothing but money-losing, bankrupt northeastern railroads. The Dunderheads of a previous generation recognized, to their credit, that America would not be better off without these railroads and their money-losing ways. Congress poured a ton of tax dollars into the system, but it eventually became self-supporting, profitable, and eventually an independent, stockholder-owned corporation.

Perhaps we need legislators that can see beyond the next election cycle. Maybe we need more people to speak up. Write your Representative.

© 2005 – C. A. Turek – mistertrain@gmail.com