Government Proposes Less Funding For Amtrak

Well this is my first post. It will take awhile to get the ball rolling but you gotta start somewhere.

Following the presidents lead, the House and Senate have proposed bills that will cut funding Amtrak. Despite Obama and Biden being "Pro-Amtrak." Amtrak needs this money and has needed it for many years. Since the beginning, Amtrak has been having to make due with little funding. The airlines, roads and other public transportation get well over ten times the amount of money Amtrak requests. I dont have the numbers at this time, I wrote them down at some point but I seem to of misplaced them. Each year they get less and less if not anything. Its a wonder that they are still running trains.

I dont like to get political when talking about trains but I just want to say I was never a fan of Obama and Biden but if there was anything that I liked about the two was they were all about helping Amtrak out, they were all for bringing them out of the stone age. Their true colors have shown.

The following is an excert from Trains News Wire. "Under the proposals being considered by both houses, Amtrak's 2010 operating grant would come in $27 million below what it requested. Representatives, meanwhile, propose cutting $453 million from Amtrak's requested capital grants, and the Senate appropriations committee yesterday decided to cut it by $381.4 million." Seems that Amtrak will be having a hard time reinstating the three long distance trains that the government proposed for them to do. I doubt with the small amount of money they recieve that they will get the new lower level fleet including baggage dorms of which are in dier need or bringing back the daily Sunset Limited.

Ross Capon, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers responded with this quote, "Even though interest in passenger train development has never been higher and the president has set a new direction for transportation policy, what is actually happening is a piling up of more highway subsidies and a continuation of inadequate funding for Amtrak."

So what do you guys think?