Political Quotes

“Well, you have to remember the reason why Amtrak was created in the first place. We didn't have public railroads in the 19th century. We didn't have public railroads in the first half of the 20th century, but by 1960 and 1970, many of the freight railroads were going bankrupt, and certainly, the passenger lines could no longer pay for themselves. They were all going bankrupt. Congress faced the reality in 1970 that if it didn't create something called Amtrak--it was named Amtrak--but something as a public corporation or publicly funded corporation, there would be no passenger rail in the United States. The States did the same thing. What became various commuter rail agencies, like MTA in New York or SEPTA in Philadelphia and others, were created out of the bankrupt passenger operations of the private rail lines. No one could make money at it. Amtrak has survived and has flourished in the sense of attracting more and more passengers, and it now has 77 percent of the market against the airlines in the Northeast corridor; and, thank God, it saves energy and time and congestion, despite the fact that it has been grossly underfunded by Congress. The only section of Amtrak that makes money is the Northeast corridor from Washington to Boston. It subsidizes everything else. There would be no rail lines outside the Northeast corridor--not to Florida, not to Chicago, not to Denver, not to any place outside the Washington to Boston corridor--if they had to pay for themselves.…”