The budget tabled by President Bush seeks to eliminate the subsidy for Amtrak, at a time when countries around the world are investing in their passenger rail systems.
"Bush's proposed cut stands in stark contrast to recent rail news from around the world. Britain recorded 1.05 billion passengers in 2004, the highest number in 45 years. The government announced last week that it is looking into building a London-to-Scotland line that would travel at up to 225 miles per hour and slash a 400-mile trip down to 2 hours, 35 minutes...In December, a new train slashed the travel time for the 177 miles between Berlin and Hamburg, the biggest cities in Germany, from two hours to 90 minutes...That is on top of the already excellent and heavily subsidized rail in Western Europe and Japan. They see the future, and it is not an SUV."
Thanks to Michael Dudley
FULL STORY: Derailing Amtrak
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research