What I think is concerning about such letters promoting expansion of the LD system is that someone in Hays, KS will start saying "they got one up in Hastings, where's ours? It could be a return to the later 70's and into the 80's when every legislator had to get "his train". Starting with the Carter Cuts, continuing with the Clinton, and then finally the Bush "prunings", things are now less than the RPSA70 "Basic System".
Imagine the effect upon railroad operations if there had to be a train running through Hays, Grand Island, and wherever else the advocacy community deems such "essential"? Is the disruption it would cause "worth it" running over lines that last saw a passenger train on A-Day and causing considerable interference with operations over the investor-owned Class I system?