Amtrak In Jeopardy ... WTF?
When I read this article detailing Amtrak's financial and budget woes (even though business has been brisk of late), I felt so frustrated. Here we have oil prices reaching historical high levels (WTI at more than $74 per barrel as I write this) and an administration trying to slash funding for passenger rail.
According to Amtrak CEO Alex Kummant, the system could keep operating if the congressional legislation, expected to pass sometime in September, evades a promised veto. But (President) Bush, never a friend of Amtrak, says he’ll nix any bills that exceed his budget requests.
Got to hand it to good ole George dubya ... he really knows how to run a country right into the ground, in the most efficient manner possible.
If forced to slash service, everything outside the busy northeast corridor (Boston-New York-Washington) could be in jeopardy. That would mean elimination of all passenger train service in the west, midwest, and south – creating a much heavier demand on an airline industry that is already stretched to the breaking point.
Perfect! Let's put more strain on refiners to produce more jet fuel to meet rising airline fuel demand. That should also help with the climate change issue. Somebody wake me up on 01.29.09 ...
