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.

[iowamark]

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

Why do you think that inefficient airline travel is comparatively inexpensive in the US? It is precisely because of heavy government subsidies.

[SoConPubbie]

Anybody know how McCain voted on this bill?

[Myrddin]

I understand the need for freight oriented rail. I have a contract with the FRA to automate the operation of anglecocks, cut levers, hand brakes and couplers. In addition, that contract includes ECP brakes, bearing temperature monitoring, vibration signature analysis of the bearings and tracking telemetry. Reduction of personnel injury and predictive scheduling of maintenance are two prime goals. Asset tracking is of interest to car owners. The ability to correlate locations of rough track via the GPS and accelerometer readings is useful for overall track maintenance. Additional analysis of the vibration from vertical bearing accelerometers and tri-axial accelerometers provides input to improve stability and diagnose the cause of premature wheelset damage.

The freight carrying capacity is a paying proposition. The passenger carrying portion is a political boondoggle.

[Caipirabob]

I priced a trip I took recently on Amtrak out of curiousity. It added an additional $900 and extra 14 hours of travel to the trip. How can they possibly stay in business without our tax dollars? This just isn't a viable or reasonable business model.

[Squantos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPch2k63uj4

I was gonna vote for Eaker ..........now maybe Joe. Joe has quiet the rant in this video !

My habitat is endangered........:o)

[hiredhand]

Maybe we could get Eak to sit down and read a good rant like that and post it to YouTube!

I still think I'm going to vote for Eaker. :-)

[Squantos]

He has to put our habitat before that of the flutter nutted platypus or he doesn’t get my vote ......... !

[hiredhand]

But of course! OUR HABITAT is very important! :-)

[DeaconBenjamin]

They subsidize highways,

You mean, with our gas tax dollars?

[patton]

That sounds like a facinating contract - have fun with it.

Are you using simulation-based analysis?

[Myrddin]

Are you using simulation-based analysis?

My subs at Sharma&Associates have performed much of the mechanical modeling. They make the auto coupler to handle the brake pipes, ECP and coupler. The pneumatically controller cutlever mechanism is activated by an embedded CAN controller I designed for the purpose. The auto-anglecock is an off the shelve electrically driven valve interfaced to my CAN controller. A similar approach is taken for the brakes. I have modeled the CAN bus using a tool from Vector to make sure I've covered all the bases. The actual CANopen library for the PIC microcontrollers comes from port GmbH (Germany). I found their package to be easier to move between Linux and the PIC microcontrollers.

[patton]

Oh, engineering-level sims.

I was wondering about system-of-systems level.

Still, fun stuff!

[glock rocks]

I’ll vote for Eaker when I see the video. I think he could use the same script as Joe, but add some lemons. Yah, I’d vote for that.

[hiredhand]

I’ll vote for Eaker when I see the video. I think he could use the same script as Joe, but add some lemons. Yah, I’d vote for that.

Exploding lemons! :-)

[glock rocks]

Exploding lemons!

Well, we are talking Eaker here.

[glock rocks]

When you find yourself surprised by their actions, it’s time to re-read Agenda 21.

[Myrddin]

I actually have a full running system on a lab table in Merrifield, VA. It uses all the actual cabling that will be installed on the rail car. I want to make sure the real components play well as a system before we install anything on the actual car. The locomotive controls the devices over an 802.11b mesh network using RTI's NDDS publish/subscribe middleware to send commands and retrieve results. We are doing lots of hazard analysis and trying to inject problems into the system to identify means of mitigating likely issues.

I have to cobble up a remote RF wakeup for the system that also supports auto sequencing and orientation for the locomotive end. The approach will use the GPS lat/lon, car identifier and magnetic compass orientation of the car over a Zigbee link. A car at rest on a siding will be powered off except for the Zigbee device and a periodic wakeup of the system to get a GPS fix, battery status and transmit that data to the server over a 1xRTT CDMA cellular data link.

[patton]

Ia am in Falls Church, VA. Who owns your lab?

[hiredhand]

Exploding lemons!

Well, we are talking Eaker here.

Silly me! I do suppose it goes without saying that if we're talking about lemons AND Eaker, that they must be exploding lemons! :-)

[B4Ranch]

Suggested change in text.

The “goobermint” should let Amtrak, the BATFE and TSA DIE.