gwschenk
Train Attendant
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
- Messages
- 83
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/titus-seeks-support-revive-amtrak-vegas
With glitzier modes of passenger rail seemingly having fallen by the track, Rep. Dina Titus says Las Vegas should look into what it might take to restore conventional Amtrak service to Southern California.
Titus said she’ll be shopping the idea to local leaders and economic development consultants this fall.
She floated the plan last week when the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved an Amtrak bill focused mostly at shoring up service along the Northeast Corridor, where government-subsidized rail makes money.
“The Southwest is getting overlooked,” the Las Vegas Democrat said in an interview. “My proposal is let’s do a study to see if it makes sense to put rail back in. You have to start somewhere.”
Amtrak dropped its Desert Wind route between Los Angeles and Ogden, Utah, via Las Vegas and Salt Lake City in 1997. Titus confessed she never boarded the Desert Wind, “but I would ride it now.”
“There have been passenger studies, ridership studies in the past but since then our population has grown and our tourist population has grown by 10 million,” she said. Titus added tourists from Europe “like to ride the train.”
Titus said she planned to meet with House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., and to run the idea by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who might take some persuading.