A few words about Amtrak
Recently, my wife and I took the train to Kansas City. It was only the second time on a train for both of us. A couple years ago I went to Springfield, IL on a day trip with my grandson. She went to Chicago on business last year.
The round-trip, over a two-night stay in KC, cost a little over one hundred dollars total. Neither of us had to spend five hours behind the wheel - coping with traffic and road hazards. We didn’t use any gas, oil or tires on our vehicles and we didn’t have to pay for parking. The staff was friendly and helpful and the seats were comfortable. I had a couple glasses of wine and we ate some reasonably priced sandwiches and snacks. The train left and arrived on time on both legs of the trip. The scenery was something you don’t get to see from the Interstate Highway.
We are already planning our next trip by train. It is beyond me why most Americans think that AMTRAK is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Yes, it is underwritten through Congress and has operated at a loss. But, the same can be said about the state and federal highway systems and all forms of air travel. Try taking the train next time. When is the last time you saw or heard in the news about a train being hijacked?
Gary Gaines
Granite City
You need to check how many tax dollars subsidized your “little over one hundred dollars total.”
Glad you made the trip on time. My family has made that trip about 10 times with an average of 4 hours delay. Makes for a long night when your 9pm train rolls in at 1am or your 4th grader on a trip to Jefferson City gets home at 11pm instead of 8pm.
My granddaughter is getting old enough for a trip to the Lincoln museum. Thank you for a great idea, I’ll throw in her 1st train trip as well. I just never thought of “not” driving.
Amtrak is a good use of taxpayer. We ought to be investing more in it and tightening our laws to prevent the freight railroads and special interests from interfering with it.
Mags–
Howcum EVERYTHING makes you angry, nowadays ?
Seems to me all the tax dollars you complain about would be spent anyway and Gary and his wif had a nice trip, and saved some gas on the way.
Why does that steam you ?
Gary - I am a huge fan of train travel, but not for the reason you are stating in your letter. The facts tell a different story. If the government would subsidize American Airlines with billions of dollars like they do with Amtrak, we’d have $100 flights to Kansas City as well. Amtrack has been in the red for over 30 years and the government picks up the their slack with out tax dollars.
The real cost of you trip wasn’t $100 dollars, it was the $100 dollars plus a portion of the federal taxes that you, me and every other person in America has paid over the past 30 years to subsidize this poorly managed company called Amtrak. So the actual price of you train ride ticket is more like $1000.
Just take a look at all of the government subsidized and goverment run organizations and tell me how ANYONE can justify the government being in control of health care. Sure, health care costs can be kept down on the surface for customers (just like Amtrak) but underneath the glossy book cover is the sinister story of facts that will cost all Americans billions more each year in taxes to keep the bloated/red tape filled government entity operating.
Come on HK
Go ahead and call me your leftist trademark “racist” and “hater”.
Your liberalism is a mental disorder.
As someone who lives in a household with one shared-car and a bunch of bicycle commuters, I can’t stress how important a national passenger rail system is. There is no entrepreneurial drive to run passenger rail in this country, so the governments must support and subsidize it. I say governments in plural because many of Amtrak’s newest and most-used routes are actually run on state subsidies and not federal tax money. In reality our federal income taxes that go to Amtrak are a drop in the proverbial bucket. Last year Amtrak got $1 billion - we spend more than that in Afghanistan in two days. I think we could afford to build a state-of-the-art, high-speed, nationwide passenger rail system in a deficit neutral manner and we could put millions of Americans back to work doing it. Heck, if it will make the conservatives happy, we could name it after Ronald Reagan. Let’s do it!
I’ve been on Amtrak a total of 3 times in my life…once a million years ago, from St Louis to Denver, with my mom & brother. Great time. Second time was to South Bend for a graduation…very relaxing. Third was from St Louis to Alton, back in ‘82 when there was 20″ snow, and couldn’t drive…very convenient! It’s a great system and opportunity…I highly recommend it. There are far more less productive things this country is spending money on. This is one of the good things! IMHO
No Mags, I’m just kind of worried for you. I don’t think I ever called you either a racist or a hater… I don’t know where you got such an idea …