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Southwest Chief "In The X-Hair"
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by sojourner: [QB] Mr Harris, you are right, there were cuts made back when CARTER was president. They were despicable. But that is a long, long time ago. In the past few decades the Republican party has shown itself to be the enemy of Amtrak. The Republican "think tanks" speak out against it. Conservative publications editorialize against it. The few Congressional Republicans who were supporters--Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Trent Lott, for example--are mostly long gone. Trump put in a budget of 0 for Amtrak (though that was overridden in Congress). Scott Walker killed trains in Wisconsin on which work had already begun. John Kasich pooh-poohed expansion in Ohio. John Mica was a big enemy. The governor of Alabama just killed expansion in Mobile. And so on. It's all part of some game plan, talking points, etc etc, as if they can balance the budget by cutting the pittance to Amtrak. In Niagara Falls, NY, the Republican candidate for mayor (fellow named Destino) railed against development of a larger train station. The Democrat who won reelection (fellow named Dysart) was for it. Now, the station gets only an average of about 90 passengers a day. But that's an average; in summer, Niagara Falls is pretty popular with tourists going up from NYC. So I ask you, is it appropriate for this point of entry to the US from Canada, at a spot to which tourists go, to be a tawdry little Amshack, as it used to be? In contrast to the cute little station Canada has in Niagara Falls, Ontario? When already lots more tourists go to Niagara Falls, Ontario, than Niagara Falls, NY, told that the Canadian side of the Falls is much nicer? Plus, the new station houses US Customs, and is intermodal for local transit. Plus, I believe much of the money to build it came from the federal stimulus package passed by the Democrats in 1998 to help curtail the very bad recession, so it wasn't even local money. Now, it did take disgustingly long to get done, and I don't know all the politics of it, which I'm sure involved some bad things on Dysart's part as well. But I do know that if ever a town needed a better-looking, more welcoming station, it was Niagara Falls. Anyway, I don't have time to do lots of research but I can tell you, over and over, it is Republicans who are the enemies of Amtrak now. I don't mean Republican voters; of course some of them support it if they live in small towns it serves (esp on Empire Builder line). I mean Republican politicians. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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