[link] Amtrak

[wispfox]

Found out from kightp that Amtrak is about to go away. I go call my Congressman now.

Comments

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

How would this affect the commuter trains, I wonder?

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

That is a damn good question, and not one that stuck in my head long enough to comment on it, myself.

[volta]

Amtrak lost the MBTA commuter rail contract in 2002. I can not recall at the moment who was awarded the 5 year contract, but it was not Amtrak.

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

mbcr.net

[windswept.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that thr subsidy of Amtrak costs more than the government buying a plane ticket instead for every passenger.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Is that with or without including the fact that the government also substaintially subsidizes airlines?

[windswept.livejournal.com]

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-266.html

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

... (feel free to ignore, as these are all in response to the article, which I suspect you didn't write. ;)

see, the problem with the 'we could spend the money here better than there' argument is that they _won't_ spend the money on some other form of transportation, almost certainly. This makes the argument a useless one. And that seems to be the vast majority of the argument made.

I'm not saying it's _wrong_, I'm just not convinced it matters.

Interesting article, though. Thank you!

[kightp.livejournal.com]

The Cato Institute is a right-wing think tank with a vested interest in "proving" that government is always evil and privatization is always good.

Tell that to the residents of rural Oregon who have been abandoned by the private, non-subsidized Greyhound Corp.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I wondered, but didn't know enough about it to be sure. Could you comment as such in my later post? :)

[windswept.livejournal.com]

The Cato Institute is libertarian, not "right-wing." Please try and be accurate in your name-calling.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

My apologies for the mislabeling, although I personally place Cato-style libertarians right next to the religious right on the extremist nut-bar scale. Nonetheless, my point about their position on government vs. privatization stands.

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

Also, why call your congressperson?

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Because (from the linked article) "Democrats are likely to fight to save Amtrak in further negotiations about the budget. Amtrak will have a chance to fight its case in hearings before both the Senate and House of Representatives' appropriations committees. There will be a final decision later this year."

So this isn't the final decision.