House budget would end rail service to 31 states

Peepers Comments: Let’s see….Amtrak’s federal debt-service payments are $250 million per year and its mandatory federal railroad retirement payments are $150 million annually. This proposed budget leaves only $150 million to tackle a multi-billion-dollar backlog of infrastructure safety and security repairs left neglected by years of scant federal funding. Or, the $150 million left over can be used to keep a few routes running that serve only 28 percent of the nation’s population, but on increasingly neglected infrastructure. Wouldn’t the ride down from the crest in peak oil be more bearable if we had a bigger and better rail system? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have each route offer more than one train a day so the entire route’s fixed costs could be spread among multiple trains generating multiples of revenue?

Chicago Sun-Times