Train Station with 78 Daily Riders Gets $1 Million in Stimulus Renovations

Capitol Confidential ^ | 8/30/2011 | Tom Gantert

[MichCapCon]

The Jackson Amtrak station will get $1 million in renovations thanks to the American Relief and Recovery Act (the federal stimulus program), according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot. But Wendell Cox, a transit consultant in St. Louis, Mo., questions why an Amtrak station with 78 customers a day would warrant such an expense.

Cox pointed to the Chatsworth station located in southern California about 40 miles from the Los Angeles area as the type of facility Jackson requires. Chatsworth gets twice as many trains and about 20,000 more passengers per year than Jackson, but has just a platform with a shelter and a ticket vending machine. It is unmanned. There is a building that has a museum and is also shared by a bus company.

By contrast, the Jackson station is staffed by 1.5 full time positions, according to Amtrak. The average Amtrak employee living in Michigan is paid about $69,600 a year in salary.

[NoLibZone]

"The average Amtrak employee living in Michigan is paid about $69,600 a year in salary."

Amtrak is about Union money getting launderd back to the DNC- not transportation.

[Ann Archy]

$70,000.00 AVERAGE PLUS Benefits and PENSIONS???? OMG!!! For a TRAIN employee!!!!

[coloradan]

It’s a train employee all right ... a gravy train employee.

[Saltmeat]

The Lincoln Parish Library in Ruston, LA used American Relief and Recovery Act (to call it stimulus money just seems so seedy and derogatory) funds to purchase ten laptop computers. The computers are available to be checked out and taken home like books. One laptop has already disappeared probably never to be heard from again. Will someone please explain how this created jobs unless they have hired a full time police detective to pursue the missing laptop.

Obama’s stimulus never was about jobs. It was about buying votes and paying off political patronage. He and his administration were so arrogant that they didn’t even bother to try to camouflage their intent.