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Trump 'skinny budget' would starve Chicago transit, City of New Orleans train: officials
Chicago Tribune ^ | 3-29-17 | Mary Wisniewski

Posted on 03/30/2017 4:51:28 AM PDT by SJackson

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1 posted on 03/30/2017 4:51:28 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson

If they’re hemorrhaging cash, tighten up or cut it off.


2 posted on 03/30/2017 5:05:41 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Understand the Left: "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution.")
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To: SJackson

Rat run cities bottomless pit of money has ended


3 posted on 03/30/2017 5:06:11 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Trump plays chess the rest are still playing checkers)
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To: SJackson

So, Donald no longer wants to subsidize failure.

America approves.

Violent ghetto dullards hardest hit.


4 posted on 03/30/2017 5:13:03 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan
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To: SJackson

Is that a 13% cut before or after baseline budgeting? In any case, the SoNO is there, along with most of the rest of Amtrak’s trains, to cover up the fact that Amtrak exists for 1 reason. And that’s the NE corridor route the pols use. The rest of the system is horrifically expensive and overpriced camouflage.


5 posted on 03/30/2017 5:13:17 AM PDT by mewzilla (Was Obama surveilling John Roberts? Might explain a lot.)
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To: SJackson

Trump ‘skinny budget’ would starve Chicago transit, City of New Orleans train: officials


This daily winning is just amazing!


6 posted on 03/30/2017 5:14:50 AM PDT by Mr. Douglas (Best. Election. EVER!)
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To: mewzilla

A couple of years ago...I did my first ever Amtrak trip...DC to Birmingham. I was a bit shocked over the cost of the ticket (includes the cabin)...but I did this on Sunday when the rate was about 70-percent of the norm.

The ticket included dinner...which was acceptable but nothing to brag about. After the whole thing ended, I got out at the Birmingham train station which is a dilapidated old station. That was my one and only trip with Amtrak. I won’t repeat it. If the Fed is helping to carrying their budget....there is something wrong with the system.


7 posted on 03/30/2017 5:18:11 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

NE pols like to use Amtrak’s NE corridor. That’s the only damn reason that bloody boondoggle exists. Check out the schedules for trains in and out of Chicago. Some of them are in the middle of the night. Who the heck wants to use an Amtrak station in Chicago in the middle of the night?! This isn’t about efficient, competitive, affordable train transpo. It’s about the bloody pols.


8 posted on 03/30/2017 5:22:52 AM PDT by mewzilla (Was Obama surveilling John Roberts? Might explain a lot.)
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To: SJackson

President Trump should just automatically deny funding to these rail and transit systems.
For the past 2 weeks, the local politicians have been harping on the need for renovation of the local rail station. The cost would be north of $86 million. Someone one did a study and found that only 108 people use the system on a daily basis. This works out to $796K per passenger. The politicians won’t let this go. (I suspect it means jobs for cronies and relatives during the 2 years of renovation work).
One of the local talk radio guys suggested that we simply give each daily rider a Cadillac Escalade at a cost of $73K each. It would be cheaper by more than 10X.
It is exactly the right thing for President Trump to deny funding for these type of money pit projects.


9 posted on 03/30/2017 5:26:30 AM PDT by BuffaloJack ("If you're going through Hell, keep going." Winston Churchill)
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To: pepsionice
If the Fed is helping to carrying their budget....there is something wrong with the system.

"budget" = salaries and benefits, salaries and benefits.

10 posted on 03/30/2017 5:26:56 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (The fear of stark justice sends hot urine down their thighs.)
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To: SJackson

Passenger trains are in many cases a 19th Century solution to 21st Century transportation problems. They have their place in high-population-density areas. Unfortunately, many policy makers live/work in such areas, and think their transportation problems are everyone’s, even those in flyover country without the population density.


11 posted on 03/30/2017 5:31:06 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: SJackson

The local - NYC, Chicago - major urban “mass transit systems” were built without federal funds. What did he politicians and unions do that turned their operations into financial losses that were unsustainable without taxpayer subsidies from everyone, instead “user fee” taxes on the mass transit users?

Th report said Chicago would “disappear” with the federal budget cuts. That’s amazing in as much Chicago, not the nation, rebuilt Chicago after the great fire - when there was not even the federal “emergency management” agency.

What is this all really about.

It’s about federal dependency. The political class transferred local dollars to Washington D.C. in the form of higher federal taxes, and with them transferred control to Washington D.C., and became dependent on the opium of “federal funding”.

I would only say to Trump one thing. That is: dollar for dollar, cut federal taxes as much as we are cutting the federal budget. At first it will seem like leaving a deficit in place, but the economic activity from the tax reduction - taxable economic activity - we’ll soon reduce that deficit.


12 posted on 03/30/2017 5:34:51 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: SJackson

“The Steel Rails still ain’t heard the news”


13 posted on 03/30/2017 5:41:29 AM PDT by tom paine 2
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To: SJackson

All of these are money losing boondoggles and have been for years. Why support them.


14 posted on 03/30/2017 5:44:19 AM PDT by Bayan
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To: tom paine 2

This train got the disappearin’ railroad blues

(I always thought it was - This train got to disappear in railroad blues.)


15 posted on 03/30/2017 5:49:03 AM PDT by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: SJackson

As everything else they support, liberals have to build a false narrative around the national passenger rail system in order to win the support of those who don’t know better. Images of “ridin’ the rails” and nostalgic Woody Guthrie songs give the average reader an impression that Amtrak has an air of romance surrounding it.

In reality Amtrak trains have the air of dirty seats and carpets, lousy food, and filthy train stations.


16 posted on 03/30/2017 5:54:49 AM PDT by Hazwaste (Democrats are like slinkies. Only good for pushing down stairs.)
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To: SJackson
Ah it should.

Why should I pay for Chicago thugs to get to their preferred mugging site?

17 posted on 03/30/2017 5:55:45 AM PDT by grobdriver (Where is Wilson Blair when you need him?)
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To: SJackson
I'm sentimental enough to want to keep a couple of transcontinental trains, but in the interests of transparency and truth in labeling, I'd fund them through the National Park Service. It's a cultural heritage thing, not a viable transportation option. I wouldn't pretend to be running these as part of a national transportation system; I'd choose the routes for scenic and historic value, and include as many whistle stops as possible. If time is a factor, fly.

The eastern corridor is the big exception. The east coast is congested, period. The interstate highways are clogged and will only get worse. There is nowhere to build new ones. Amtrak needs to get its costs down somehow; if it weren't so danged expensive, there would be a much bigger market.

18 posted on 03/30/2017 5:58:00 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: SJackson

If they want to survive, they need to break even or make a profit.
Or, if it is sooooo important, the State or local governments need to subsidize them, not the Federales.


19 posted on 03/30/2017 6:00:13 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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To: pepsionice

If the Fed is helping to carrying their budget....there is something wrong with the system.

(((
We were just talking about this recently. I would love to see train travel that is operated with market competition.


20 posted on 03/30/2017 6:01:58 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Vacate the chair! Ryan must go.)
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