The House of Representatives yesterday approved a $14.4-billion rail investment bill. The bill will reauthorize Amtrak’s funding, provide some money to long-awaited Moynihan Station project and provide money to construct a high-speed bullet train from New York City to D.C. While the White House may veto this bill, it has the votes in the House and Senate to pass anyway. While I applaud the focus on rail, this strikes me as a “too little, too late” measure. We could use a lot more investments like this one in our national rail.
House approves Amtrak bill, but Bush may veto it
previous post
4 comments
Not a perfect bill but it is good to see some heightened commitment to Amtrak. The rightwingers have been trying to bury Amtrak for decades.
By the way, I understand they have the votes to override a Bush veto if it comes to that.
In any event I’d like to see them revisit this next year when we have a solid Democratic majority in both houses and Obama in the White House . . . investment in high speed intercity rail needs to be “fast tracked” if you’ll pardon the pun.
I think Amtrak needs
1) High speed railway from NYC to DC as well as all the way down to Miami
2) Make trips across America more family fun as well as travel (much like the cruise industry did once people started taking planes)
3) More auto trains please… not sure that one will work but its worth a try LOL
I look forward to them doing something with the rail system.
I can definitely see some Democrats in Pennsylvania use the Amtrak bill to hammer McCain, who wants to privatize Amtrak. I don’t think Obama’ll do it, though; so far he’s said nothing of public transportation as a solution to high gas prices.
Actually, he has:
http://www.streetsblog.org/200.....city-rail/