Our elected Congressional Representatives and Senators need to hear from as many Amtrak supporters as possible. Most of them never use Amtrak except for trips on the Northeast corridor, so they have no clue as to how many people are using long distance trains and the fact that those trains are very important modes of transportation for cities and towns along the routes. I am represented by a Congressman and two Senators that have been historically opposed to any support for Amtrak. Their responses to my letters have been the same old retoric that the Department of Transportation has been using. I did notice recently that one of my Senators did vote in favor of Amtrak. Could it be because he is up for re-election in November and enough people have contacted him? We need to encourage our Representatives and Senators to provide a permanant, long term funding for Amtrak that will allow capital improvements such as new equipment, additional track capacity and incentives for the host freight railroads to allow on time performance for Amtrak. Just funding the status quo as they have for the past 35 years is not beneficial.
