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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: [QB] The Bush administration, in its 526 days remaining in office, has hotter potatoes to address; the '05 "rationalize' initiative, when they thought they had some political capital to expend, was a flop; they have moved on. Congress (both houses) wants to ensure that their 218+51 stands; the program is quite cheap (I estimate LD's account for some $300M of the $1.4B appropriation) and seems to attract much constituent attention - even if for nothing more than take Jr. down to the station to see the train (if scheduled during the daylight and on time). The +1 of Mr. Pullman's 218+51+1 is really meaningless - no President is about to veto an "omnibus' spending bill, where any Amtrak appropriation would simply be a deeply buried line item. But at present the Class I industry is not seeking public funding for infrastructure expansion, and I think one such deterrent would be the "strings attached" - one such string could be a key insertion of "and passenger' into the provisions. To impose upon the roads a requirement that they host additional passenger trains on their existing infrastructure would be tantamount to a "takings' and would escalate what I presently believe is considered within the industry a "nuisance" to that of a "threat". So in this environment the existing LD's will continue to chug on - or at least until the equipment exceeds its economic life. However as one has likely surmised, I would not hold out too much hope for any expansion of the system, and in my personal opinion there is no need for such. While I'm hardly passionate to the extent some here appear to be (while I once was in another life, I'm no longer of "ride just to ride' persuasion), I'll still ride 'em when convenient, but I think that largely means Auto Train on trips to Florida (one or two a year in Season for the past 25+ years) if I have reason to first drive out to the Northeast. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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