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Stressed Travelers Need Passenger Rail |
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by Dave Zweifel
(No verified email address) |
31 Mar 2004
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Our leaders are willing to throw tens of billions at highway construction and several billions to upgrade airports and subsidize air travel. But they can't see their way clear to bolster rail service at a fraction of the cost. |
Back from the annual vacation watching baseball in Arizona, I'm reminded once again just how close we are to a national transportation crisis.
Except in the most remote parts of the country, our interstate system and the freeways that feed it are clogged with cars and trucks virtually 24 hours a day. In Phoenix, where concrete now covers about half of the great Sun Valley desert, the traffic gridlock is rated the third worst in the nation.
And, of course, the airports are nothing short of a joke. Aside from the excruciating, but apparently necessary, security procedures, the airlines today treat their customers (if you can still call them that) like livestock being herded into a truck. The lines have added new meaning to hurry up and wait. Yet the big airline conglomerates still lose so much money that only George Bush's deficit spending compares.
All the while, there's another people mover out there that could help. But instead of helping passenger rail become a viable alternative that could alleviate some of this expensive congestion, our political leaders continue to starve it.
Bush, for example, has proposed giving Amtrak just $900 million next year, and some of his buddies in Congress want to slash even that pathetic figure.
The $900 million just barely covers Amtrak's annual operating deficit, including the interest it is paying on its debt. So there would be no money available for maintenance and much-needed route expansion. And that's what is so desperately needed. Railroads can't become a bona fide alternative unless they can start offering expanded service. Travelers need to have choices.
Our leaders are willing to throw tens of billions at highway construction and several billions to upgrade airports and subsidize air travel. But they can't see their way clear to bolster rail service at a fraction of the cost.
Interestingly, the newspaper USA Today did a survey of travelers to determine their stress levels.
There were more than 500 million air travelers last year, and 47 percent of them rated flying the most stressful way to go. That was followed by driving at 38 percent.
Only 2 percent of folks who traveled by train, however, found that travel stressful.
Copyright 2003 The Capital Times
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