Denny Rehberg: “I too recognize the difficult position that the Appropriations Committee has been put in with the cost of Amtrak and the…”

“I too recognize the difficult position that the Appropriations Committee has been put in with the cost of Amtrak and the ongoing costs. I just caution the Members of this body that there are States like myself. I represent an entire State. The distance of my district spans the distance of Washington, DC, to Chicago. Our cities were not established in Montana because of rivers and a port. We were established because of the rail. Rail in Montana is not an essential service; it is a critical service. In many cases, we have good bus service. It just does not happen to be in the area where Amtrak is. We have good air service. Unfortunately, it just does not happen to be in the area where the rail is. And so, in our particular case, where you have a large geographical area with very little population, it becomes a critical service to provide not only our products but our passengers as well. The Empire Builder in Montana has as many as 500,000 people traveling on it. Do we recognize it is subsidized? Yes, we do. But I do not think the founding fathers and I do not think this Congress ever intended it to be run entirely like a business. We want good quality service. We want a cheap price. The problem is there cannot be competition because you cannot set up a rail next to the other. You cannot have two railroads competing against each other. So Amtrak is one of those entities that cannot entirely be run like a business.…”