Save Our Trains Michigan
Conductor
By: Michael Lewis
Posted 04/20/06
10:26 AM
Last week, HUMAN EVENTS published its list of the 10 Most Harmful Government Programs. The biggest scam known to mankind as Social Security topped the list as the most harmful, egregiously unconstitutional program. While at the time I wholeheartedly agreed with Social Security's ranking on the Top 10 list, I hereby cast my vote for Amtrak.
Flying to Reagan National Airport from Raleigh can sometimes be costly, so I decided to do what my friends from the Northeast do -- I decided to take the train from Durham, N.C., to Washington's Union Station. Not only was it half the price of a plane ticket, but I had never been on a train and thought that it might be fun to see the countryside from a different perspective. For a while, it was nice to see rural North Carolina and Virginia's small-town America from the window. It was interesting to see the landscape change from rural to urban and back again. However, the novelty wore off quickly.
I had heard Saturday that train service between New York and Florida had resumed after fixing a distressed railroad bridge in Selma, N.C. I fully expected the six-hour ride to Washington to last six hours. Instead, the departure for my nine-hour ordeal on Amtrak was first delayed, with an hour spent idling before the "fixed bridge" over a creek in Selma. While Amtrak's slogan is "I want to get on," I simply could not wait to get off
Story
Posted 04/20/06
10:26 AM
Last week, HUMAN EVENTS published its list of the 10 Most Harmful Government Programs. The biggest scam known to mankind as Social Security topped the list as the most harmful, egregiously unconstitutional program. While at the time I wholeheartedly agreed with Social Security's ranking on the Top 10 list, I hereby cast my vote for Amtrak.
Flying to Reagan National Airport from Raleigh can sometimes be costly, so I decided to do what my friends from the Northeast do -- I decided to take the train from Durham, N.C., to Washington's Union Station. Not only was it half the price of a plane ticket, but I had never been on a train and thought that it might be fun to see the countryside from a different perspective. For a while, it was nice to see rural North Carolina and Virginia's small-town America from the window. It was interesting to see the landscape change from rural to urban and back again. However, the novelty wore off quickly.
I had heard Saturday that train service between New York and Florida had resumed after fixing a distressed railroad bridge in Selma, N.C. I fully expected the six-hour ride to Washington to last six hours. Instead, the departure for my nine-hour ordeal on Amtrak was first delayed, with an hour spent idling before the "fixed bridge" over a creek in Selma. While Amtrak's slogan is "I want to get on," I simply could not wait to get off
Story