Posted on 05/16/2015 3:19:15 PM PDT by jazusamo
“If we’re going to have passenger rail, we’re going to need to make it safe and make it efficient,” he told The Billy Penn.
“It’s going to require investment,” he added, predicting Amtrak would need $117 “billion with a B” for reaching optimal safety and speed along its Northwest Corridor.
Fattah, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, criticized Republicans for opposing additional funding measures for Amtrak.
“One party thinks we should invest in passenger rail and mass transit, and the other party doesn’t,” he said.
House Republicans approved a funding reduction for Amtrak on Wednesday.
Fattah argued Saturday the move was insensitive given Amtrak Regional Train 188 had derailedoutside Philadelphia only the night before.
“The [Republicans] could have delayed the meeting out of respect for those in the accident but they decided to go forward and vote on party line votes,” he said.
“That is not unusual,” he added of Wednesday’s vote.
Fattah said that the accident illustrated the growing deterioration of America’s infrastructure overall.
“Our airports, bridges, railroads and highways are in pretty bad shape,” he said. “But we can’t fix them without money.”
Wednesday’s reduction was part of a $55 billion funding bill for the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
The new measure gave Amtrak $1.13 billion, down from approximately $1.4 billion Congress appropriated for the organization in 2015.
The Federal Railroad Administration on Saturday ordered Amtrak to improve safety regulations along its Northeast Corridor line.
The agency instructed Amtrak to install an automated system for slowing out-of-control trains along the heavily traveled railway.
It also asked that Amtrak improve its signage for the proper speed limits in that corridor.
National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said Thursday evening that Train 188 had sped up to 106 mph before its accident late Tuesday.
That pace, he added, took place in an area with a 50 mph speed limit.
Train 188’s crash Tuesday evening killed eight passengers and wounded at least 200 more.
The FBI announced Friday it was investigating the possibility that the vehicle was hit by a bulletor some other flying object.
We'll raise the many more Billions we will need than he dares to guess to revive and rejuvenate the rails by selling leases to the the rights of ways, point to points to point - like the old airline CAB system.
Otherwise, get your Iman's hand outta my pocket, rent-seeker.
Dude! You could build a HSR in California for that !! Good god , voters, are you that stupid?
I don’t know if he is high but I understand he is under serious investigation from the justice department.
Okay the libs want to spend that kind of money we will spend it. We just have to tax the media the lawyers the unions and lot of other lib parties that have a lot of extra money laying around.
That’s absurd, but not because of us—because of the government. Amtrak’s fares are the way they are due to government regulations and the bizarre requirement of Amtrak having to “pay its own way” under that draconian regimen. (And they still have to “get” subsidized. Why didn’t Nixon deregulate instead of creating Amtrak?)
When the Metroliner first came out in the late 60s (operated by private company Penn Central), the fare was $12.75 for a journey from New York City to Washington DC, which is $81.55 in 2015 dollars. And this train that crashed is not even the Acela (which can be twice the old Metroliner fare).
The elites want their rail system but don’t want to pay the real cost of their travel.
Acela fares are actually double in real dollars what the Metroliner’s fare was in 1969. A nice legacy of ever-increasing regulation, and of course government ownership of the railroad it runs on.
That “real cost” would be way lower if Nixon would have deregulated the railroads in 1971. But on May Day of that year, he created Amtrak instead.
Don’t disputes that at all. However that does not speak to the real cost of operating the line and the percentage covered by the passengers.
Buses it is then.
BUY ALL OF THE RIDERS A BUS PASS
Chakra is not one of the numerator of our Representatives.
Chaka Kahn?...didn’t she pass on a few years ago?
I meant to type “more numerate” of our Reps.
Amtrak and the US Postal Service both need to get off the public dole.
Shut it down on the Fed level, let the States and / or Private Industry have a go at it.
Chaka Fatah??? What’s that???
The solution is simple...Scrap it...
I think private industry dumped it half a century ago.
Amen to that! :)
Excellent book
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.