House approves Amtrak funding

CNN ^

[MeanGreen2008]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A nearly $15 billion Amtrak bill passed the House on Wednesday as lawmakers rallied around an alternative for travelers saddled with soaring gas prices.

The bipartisan bill, which passed by a veto-proof margin of 311-104, would authorize funding for the national passenger railroad over the next five years. Some of the money would go to a program of matching grants to help states set up or expand rail service.

Besides the $14.9 billion provided for Amtrak and intercity rail, an amendment to the bill would authorize $1.5 billion for Washington's Metro transit system over the next 10 years.

The White House has threatened a veto, saying the bill doesn't hold Amtrak accountable for its spending. But similar legislation has passed the Senate, also with enough support to override a veto.

"Nothing could be more fitting to bring before the Congress today, on a day when gasoline has reached $4.05 a gallon across the United States on average," said Rep. John Mica, R-Florida, a longtime Amtrak critic who teamed up with Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, on the legislation.

Amtrak's previous authorization expired in 2002. The railroad's supporters say that a new authorization will allow Amtrak to make long-range plans and take advantage of what they say is a growing appetite for passenger rail.

[MeanGreen2008]

I say stop funding and let competition play out. I just checked and an Amtrak ticket from Dallas to Charleston, WV is the same price as the plane ticket I purchased 3 weeks ago. The plane will get me there 32 hours faster.

[goldstategop]

They've funded the Amtrak boondoggle for years but they can't be bothered to allow drilling for more oil.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[kc8ukw]

Hmm... public transportation is my only vice. ‘Tis unfortunate that government is involved in almost every form of transportation now. They subsidize highways, run airport security and subsidize the airlines, and run the national passenger train network. I like trains, so if subsidizing is how we want to play the game, please do fund Amtrak.

[Liberty 275]

Where in the constitution does it say the government should fund personal transportation?

Just another example of pigs at the trough of my tax dollars.

[Myrddin]

I say stop funding and let competition play out. I just checked and an Amtrak ticket from Dallas to Charleston, WV is the same price as the plane ticket I purchased 3 weeks ago. The plane will get me there 32 hours faster.

The Amtrak ticket was actually MORE expensive. You just didn't get the itemized amount of the taxpayer subsidy that was extracted from our paychecks. It's socialism on parade. Rail transportation is popular in places dominated by socialists. Competition? If they had to compete, the passenger railroads would have been defunct long ago. Ayn Rand made no mistake in featuring railroads as a central theme in Atlas Shrugged.

[hiredhand]

Nothing could be more fitting to bring before the Congress today, on a day when gasoline has reached $4.05 a gallon across the United States on average," said Rep. John Mica, R-Florida...

When are these retards going to take this dying aberration off of life support and just let it DIE?!

Might we suggest that the Rep. John Mica (R-Florida!) and all the rest of the bastards of his ilk stop taxing our fuel?! But no!...instead, they spend more of our money on something that continues to lose money and they actually feel good about it because they truly think they're helping!

I guess this is O.K. really. After all, they can always just print more of the worthless script.

They're all retarded!

[EDINVA]

Competition is intersting in the NYC/DC corridor. Cheapest Amtrak fare is $69 one-way. Several entrepreneurs have started bus companies that do the NYC/DC route and charge as little as $35 round trip. YOu can go first class for $50 ;)

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Why bother with this? It won’t produce results for 10 years. Just like drilling in ANWR. Democrats should be in full agrement to fugeddaboudit.

[MeanGreen2008]

When we went to Virginia two years ago for vacation, we stayed in Richmond and took the Amtrak to D.C. I was convenient and relatively cheap, but for anything longer than a few hour car drive, Amtrak IMHO isn’t worth it.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don’t see where the federal government has any business funding local transportation systems. But Amtrak, quite simply, is necessary for national security reasons. We cannot be wholly dependent on flight for medium to long distance travel, and personal vehicles have serious limitations in emergency situations.

If you don’t see how this is a national security issue, I refer you to the events of 9/11. I was in NYC on 9/11, and the Amtrak service through NYC was one of the major hubs for handling the massive number of people stranded hundreds or thousands of miles from their homes when air travel ground to a sudden and complete halt and dropped them off at whatever airport was closest when the universal order to land went out. I bumped into US citizens who’d been stranded in Canada on their way home from business or personal trips to Europe, using Amtrak as part of their makeshift route home to distant parts of the country. Even after air travel began to resume, it was several days before airlines could get their planes back to the right locations from which to offer reasonably normal service, and the NYC Amtrak station remained extremely overloaded for at least two weeks after 9/11. Without Amtrak to fan these stranded hordes out across the country, to places where they could pick up rental cars, regional bus and rail service, be picked up by friends and relatives, etc., the chaos and economic damage would have been much greater.

[Nick Danger]

For every dollar the federal government subsidizes Amtrak, it spends $3 subsidizing the airlines. If you stop funding and let competition play out, the airlines will all go out of business.

[Digger]

A veto proof bunch of skunks do this each day & you all go & vote them back in. The problem - the people.

[Thunder90]

Hmm... public transportation is my only vice. ‘Tis unfortunate that government is involved in almost every form of transportation now. They subsidize highways, run airport security and subsidize the airlines, and run the national passenger train network. I like trains, so if subsidizing is how we want to play the game, please do fund Amtrak.

Agreed. We have sent billions of taxdollars down the black hole known as the airline industry and we put billions into our road networks.

[Publius]

Absolutely correct. And the highway system is subsidized worst of all. Read the following for a humorous look at what happens if you really eliminate all subsidies.

TANSTAAFL: A Semi-Satiical Look at a World Without Transportation Subsidies

[tcrlaf]

1- We NEED, and MUST HAVE a viable National Rail (Pax and goods) System in this country. 9/11 showed just how valuable this backup can be.

2- That said, Amtrak has been a political vote-buying and union welfare program for FAR too long, and needs to be DESTROYED, and something new built from the ashes, FREE of the nearly yearly political shenanigans..

[hiredhand]

So we need Amtrak to stay the dying horse that it is all in the name of the war on terror eh? Well then why was it ever permitted to last as long as it did before 9/11?

Amtrak is representative of a larger problem in our government. 9/11 woke a lot of people up. Unfortunately, a lot are already going back to sleep. But 9/11 reminded people that we're still a bad lot. But so are the self serving bureaucrats who do things like keep Amtrak alive...at our expense!

9/11 has given no end of agencies no end of excuses to spend money on no end of "things" that are now ABSOLUTELY necessary! These are things like keeping Amtrak alive. They didn't have a good enough excuse before 9/11, but you're telling us that they do now?

The "goobermint" should let Amtrak DIE and redirect the money to TSA and hire some "real" security people and start searching those who match a known "profile" instead of searching little old white ladies and cowaring at Imams threatening to sue.

[dragnet2]

Where in the constitution does it say the government should fund personal transportation?

Well, since they are running our public schools, law enforcement, fire departments, regulating all construction, insurance, our lawn mowers, drugs, medicine, jails, hospitals, social services, rent, finances, wars, water, sewers, cars, trucks......... We'll somewhere along the line, they figured they'd run and regulate everything.

[EDINVA]

Oh, I am a HUGH Amtrak fan ... but given the choice between paying $50 RT to NYC from DC v. $138, I will opt for the bus. Takes pretty much same amount of time, and both arrive at same place in midtown Manhattan.

We used to take Amtrak to Florida, more often than not using Auto Train ... that was a great way to travel, especially with kids. You had your car when you got to your destination, but everyone wasn’t cooped up in a car for 17 hours, with the stress on the driver. Totally enjoyed that.

[Wvoter]

I disagree. We’re traveling from Atlanta to Boston over Christmas-willingly. Leave at 8pm, breakfast traveling through the VA countryside, NYC by 2pm, Boston by 8pm. Comfortable seats, room to walk around, no removing shoes or Lord knows what else for some TSA doofus, good meals in the diner, and best of all, no fighting Christmas airport traffic to/from ATL and BOS airports. Very very civilized. This is what happens the world over when energy prices are high-like ours. You go, Amtrak!! As predicted, it only took one good energy crisis to show your value to this country as an option to pumping $4/gallon gas into inefficient cars. You have a great opportunity to prove your worth. Don’t screw it up.