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Opinion: 'An attack on Amtrak'
(The following editorial, "An attack on Amtrak," appeared October 17, 2005, in the Boston Globe.
It might not happen until gasoline reaches $5 a gallon, but at some point the United States is going to realize it needs a high-functioning intercity rail system.
Achieving this will require a greater federal role in Amtrak, not a reduced one.
That is why Congress should not give the time of day to the resolution by Amtrak's board to split off the line's Northeast Corridor and have it run by a consortium of the federal government and the states it serves.
Most state officials in the corridor, which runs from Boston to Washington, D.C., already have the burden of supporting commuter rail operations. They have no interest in taking on the backlogged maintenance and upgrading needed of the corridor's tracks, bridges, tunnels, electrical systems, and switches.
Ideologues in Republican administrations going back to Ronald Reagan have wanted to pull the federal plug on Amtrak, turning it over to the private sector. But Amtrak exists because the private rail lines were only too happy in the 1970s to hand over unprofitable passenger service to the federal government and focus on freight.
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(The following editorial, "An attack on Amtrak," appeared October 17, 2005, in the Boston Globe.
It might not happen until gasoline reaches $5 a gallon, but at some point the United States is going to realize it needs a high-functioning intercity rail system.
Achieving this will require a greater federal role in Amtrak, not a reduced one.
That is why Congress should not give the time of day to the resolution by Amtrak's board to split off the line's Northeast Corridor and have it run by a consortium of the federal government and the states it serves.
Most state officials in the corridor, which runs from Boston to Washington, D.C., already have the burden of supporting commuter rail operations. They have no interest in taking on the backlogged maintenance and upgrading needed of the corridor's tracks, bridges, tunnels, electrical systems, and switches.
Ideologues in Republican administrations going back to Ronald Reagan have wanted to pull the federal plug on Amtrak, turning it over to the private sector. But Amtrak exists because the private rail lines were only too happy in the 1970s to hand over unprofitable passenger service to the federal government and focus on freight.
Story
