Excerpt: Amtrak the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (thats the official name) was born during the Nixon administration.
*Amtrak is:* - Government owned and controlled - Union-operated, employing more than 20,000 workers - Has a CEO appointed by the president of the United States - Its annual budget is allocated allocated by Congress. What could possibly go wrong? Lets start with money. Amtrak loses bucketloads of money every day. The national rail system operates in the red, generating huge losses and has done so each and every year of its existence. And they are not shy about it. >From the Amtrak website; In FY 2010, Amtrak earned approximately $2.51 billion in revenue and incurred approximately $3.74 billion in expense. Thats over $1.2 billion in losses for the most recent year, putting the overall tab for this antiquated, bloated and inefficient system around $50 billion dollars of taxpayer money. The embarrassment of Amtrak has even struck a chord with someone who rallied for its creation. Anthony Haswell, founder of the National Association of Railroad Passengers and a person widely recognized as the inspiration for Amtrak, is not happy with the current state of the railroads affairs. Mr. Haswell opines on Amtrak in Red State Uprising: How To Take Back America Amtrak is a massive failure because its wedded to a failed paradigm. It runs trains that serve political purposes as opposed to being responsive to the marketplace. America needs passenger trains in selected areas, but it doesnt need Amtraks antiquated route system, poor service and unreasonable operating deficits. Read more here: link<http://www.theblaze.com/stories/amtrak-turns-40-called-a-massive-failure-by-its-founder/> J - The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. - Alexis de Tocqueville There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. - Alexis de Toc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:337567 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
