How dare Congress consider eliminating high-speed rail. A “modern” nation (I’m beginning to questions whether we qualify for that status anymore) must support all forms of transportation, especially rail which is the most cost-effective and eco-friendly form for trips under 1,000 miles.
I smell money-grubbing privatization advocates here. Guess what folks, it don’t work! The United Kingdom has experimented with privatized passenger rail for years and found it does not save money.
Please call, write, email, text, Twitter, or Facebook your representatives in Congress and tell them you support high-speed passenger rail and that you are against cutting its funding. You might also indicate that you would rather them cut subsides to oil companies or to highway construction.
problogic
Panethos 
Well said, Rick
We are way behind in this area
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Thank you, Uncle Dave.
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Well, at least I will be honest about it. The last time I rode a train (any train) wasa commuter train when I worked in the Loop in the late 1970’s. The last time I rode on a passenger train was in 1951 when Dad took Chuck and I to Milwaukee on a day off from school. If there was a huge public demand for train service there would be massive support for high speed rail service. We are seeing the waste of money that occurs when government wrongly seeks to dictate public preferences.
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Amtrak has had 30 million riders this year. If highways and airlines were treated (underfunded) like rail, more people would be riding trains. Come on Mick, you know darn well that the government has been dictating public preferences when it provides oil subsidies and funds highways and airports like they were the only transportation choice for decades. Give rail and cycling the kind of money they spread to the highway lobby and see where the public goes.
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I have always loved BART in San Fran, and Canada’s light rail was awesome, but even cities as progressive as Seattle are fighting new construction of light rails. They think they are “unsightly.” Because the buses are so pretty, I guess. . .
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Buses, pretty??? Guess they must have been smoking something wacky before the survey.
Seattle does have vintage street cars along its waterfront – rode one back in ’05. They came from Melbourne, Aussieland and had mahogany interiors – quite stylish. Also have been on commuter trains in Dallas, DC, Philly, New York, Chicago, and London. Amtrak from East Lansing to Chicago and back and from Indy to Chicago and East Lansing just this past summer; as well as passenger trains all over the UK; and on the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Denali to Fairbanks in ’05.
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Well Rick, in 2010, American, United, Southwest and Delta — the four major U.S. airlines — carried 544 MILLION passengers. Add in the smaller carriers and there were likely close to three quarters of a billion people traveling on airlines.
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