I agree. As I understand it, he wants to keep the Northeast Corridor and nothing else besides the state supported corridors. I just don't think the rest of the country is going to want to pay for the Northeast Corridor. If we can't have a national train system, then let the states and cities from DC to Boston pay for the NEC.
And those in the NEC don't want to pay for LD routes (or at least some of them). Like it or not, most people don't want to pay their tax money for things they won't use and either you serve "everyone", pick and choose, or serve no one. Anyone here who believes Amtrak serves everyone now is kidding themselves.
And maybe unicorns and rainbows will fly ahead of these trains, heralding their approach.
Amen to that
Oh for gods sake. Part of living in a society is you contribute to society in general, you don't get to pick and choose what you want to support. I live inland, but my some of my tax money goes to the Coast Guard anyway. I don't watch TV, but some of my taxes go to PBS. Just because you don't see the value of some aspect of publicly funded works doesn't mean the value isn't there.
Well he's not "keeping" the state supported, the states are.
BTW, I am planning to meet Nelson and Murphy during NARP's day on the Hill. I am still debating whether there is any point meeting Posey. A few of will be meeting Rubio, if we can find him, too.
You're right, trains don't make a whole lot of sense for NYP-LAX travel. But they do for NYP-SYR, and ROC-CLE, and TOL-CHI, and CHI-KCY, etc, etc. Now, it's also true that a better case can be made for the eastern long distance trains than the western long distance trains. But, politics being what it is, it's not hard to imagine that if/when all long distance serve is defunded (at least at the federal level), that it will be rather difficult to get much federal funding (whether capital funds or otherwise) for state corridors.
a) 9/12/01
If you're going from NYC to LAX maybe you're right. But Amtrak goes to something like 500 stations. There are a lot of intermediate trips being made.
There is an old saying that anti-Amtrak politicians (and think-tanks, etc.) love to spout: "Trains only make sense in short and medium distance corridors where they can compete with airplanes". There is lacking solid research or studies to support that claim, but regardless, they miss the point that short and medium distance travel is exactly the way the long-distance trains are being used. The real market for the Southwest Chief and other long hauls is to and from intermediate points, many of them indeed 300 to 500 miles distant (similar to several regional corridors).
