http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/30783-our-decrepit-rail-system-makes-another-amtrak-crash-more-likely
"We need to what we did for hundreds of years before Reaganism infected our national discourse: seriously invest in our rail infrastructure.
Right now, we lag way behind countries like China, Switzerland and Austria.
That needs to change, and we should start by doubling our efforts to boost Amtrak and its Northeast Corridor, which is so important to our economy that if it stopped altogether, the country would lose almost $100 million every single day.
The problem, though, is that Republicans don't give a rat's patooey about improving our rail system - at least so long as it's not owned by some billionaire.
Right now, they're actually trying cut Amtrak funding by around 20 percent, from $1.4 billion to $1.13 billion, and some have actually called for the privatization of the Northeast Corridor.
The way they see it, since Amtrak isn't "making a profit," it's a waste of money.
This is a perfect example of Reaganism run amok. No transportation system "makes a profit"- our highways certainly don't - because that's not the point.
The point of having a national highway system or national rail system isn't to make money - it's to provide a service to the public and to provide a backbone for the economy to grow and prosper.
Infrastructure is just the soil in which business roots itself, and government spending is the best fertilizer.
That's what Republicans don't get about Amtrak.
Sometimes, throwing money at a problem is the way to fix it.
When your tracks are crumbling, your bridges are falling apart and your trains are dinosaurs from the 1970s, no magical privatization scheme is going to solve the problem."
