As gasoline prices steadily rise and airfares go up day by day, rail travel is looking more and more like a bargain. The only trouble is, the Amtrak system is literally crumbling and needs federal funding. Congress, which controls the purse strings, is asleep at the switch.
Though funding is being increased this year, the repairs are long overdue. And those repairs when they begin will come at the expense of service disruptions. The saddest thing is that these problems have been ongoing for years and have been the subject of bloggers and bulletin board posters.
The inability of Congress to pass substantive Amtrak funding, even in the face of growing problems with oil producing countries and ever-increasing highway traffic, has resulted in a backlog of $5 billion.
Just as with the Congressional lack of action on the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control infrastructure repairs and upgrade funding, the failure to deliver funding for Amtrak is impacting the growing numbers of everyday Americans who depend on the rail system to get to work and for vacation travel.
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Yes, of course the repairs “will come at the expense of service disruptions.” How can you complain about both the lack of repairs and the necessary side-effects of actual repairs? Better there be planned disruptions than unplanned ones.
The root of this and other problems is that government representatives spend the majority of the federal budget to buy votes from the dependent and unproductive classes. The federal government has plenty of income. It is blowing the money to support the lifestyles of the slackers and non-contributors. Check the percentage of the federal budget spending by category and tell me that it reflects the principles of the US Constitution.