| House to Vote on Intercity Rail Funding |
|
|
| Written by Joshua Liberles | |||||
| Wednesday, 26 December 2007 | |||||
|
The Senate recently passed S. 294, the Rail Passenger Investment and Improvement Act, by a 70-22 margin. This “veto-proof” majority came in spite of the Bush administration’s strong words against the bill. It’s now up to the House of Representatives to follow suit and provide funding to our rail system. A vote in the House is expected in early 2008. The goal is to improve the U.S.’ intercity passenger rail system with funding commensurate with the money that goes towards the nation’s other transportation projects. Currently in the U.S., the federal government foots the bill for 80-90% of road projects, 80% of airport projects, and 30-50% of transit projects.
The only money currently invested in intercity rail goes to Amtrak to maintain the Northeast Corridor. It’s up to the states to install and maintain any other rail projects – one of the reasons why the nation’s train system is so lacking.
The Senate bill earmarks $3.335 billion for Amtrak operations between 2006 and 2011 and approves capital spending of $6.3 billion.
“Instead of barely giving Amtrak enough to survive, our bill provides for Amtrak’s capital and operational needs,” said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D, N.J.), the bill’s co-sponsor along with Trent Lott (R, Miss.).
The Better World Auto Club is one of the organizations pushing for the legislation. Better World is a roadside assistance provider, competing directly with the AAA behemoth.
On the surface, it may be surprising for an auto club to push for railroad legislation (or for Carectomy to be giving them press!). Better World, however, is not your daddy’s auto club. Whereas AAA is very involved in a behind-the-scenes political agenda of discouraging fuel efficiency, expanding roadways, and defeating environmental initiatives (see Harpers Magazine’s not-so-subtly-titled AAA Paves the Road to Hell for a thorough indictment), Better World offers discounts to hybrids and fuel efficient vehicles, encourages and sells carbon offsets, and even offers roadside assistance to bicycles!
Photo via flickr by Stephen Rees.
Comments (2)
J.C., Sr.
said:
|
|||||
 |
HOORAY!!! |
 |
The only reason that the Congress wasted money on Amtrak is so they can prop up the unions to get more votes. Other than NY-Boston, no one rides this huge waste of money. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
The operation is a little bit painful, but life afterward is much more awesome. If you're interested in carectomies, sign up to our newsletter, or subscribe our RSS feed below.
Subscribe to this comment's feed