Political Quotes

“At a day and age in which some 16 percent of our freight in this country is shipped by rail, all told over 40 percent of our total ton miles of intercity freight go by rail, we have not yet seen fit to say the Federal Government should have some interest, more than just a passing interest, in helping to support, to nurture the rail component of our transportation system. Later, probably not this week but I suspect next week, we will have the opportunity to consider that question: What kind of attention, what kind of support should we in the Congress and in this country be providing for freight rail service? What kind of support should we be providing in this country for passenger rail service? Amtrak has just concluded a year where they had the highest ridership in the history of the company. More than 24 million people rode intercity passenger trains, and they had the highest revenue, I believe, for any year in their history as well. We spend a whole lot of time from year to year in this body talking about passenger rail service and Amtrak. We really don't focus much on freight rail.”