House Republicans vote to cut Amtrak funding one day after deadly crash

[Embers84]

Is there any evidence that infrastructure 'under-investment' had anything to do with the AMTRAK crash? No there is not. Running into the curve at double the posted speed limit is what likely caused the crash (at least from the preliminary news reports).

You don't even know the reason why it crashed, so don't make assumptions to push your spin. Obviously there was a mechanical failure somewhere, and the GOP cutting billions from Amtrak will make it possible for more crashes and failures to occur. The republican plan is to eliminate Amtrak all together because they feel it's unnecessary to have it. So with these new cuts and if anything else goes wrong with more crashes, and less people use it, and that gives them the justification to end Amtrak for good. Playing life and death with people's lives is wrong and the GOP should be held accountable.

I guess the question is, why does amtrak need funding in the first place?

Another defective gayfaced faggot probably upset about last nights public toilet grinder hookup and latest bout of intestinal parasites crashes his train by travelling at 100mph around a 50mph bend.

As if on que:

*Puppet stringed low IQ sh!tlibs weaned on a steady diet of big chosenite media wave their weak arms at those "evil rethuglicans"...coz screw you dad*

*Mainstream leftoid media scrambles to close all comment sections for fear of narrative change*

*The poz continues*


Danger with the common sense logic trap once again. If it's so popular and "way of the future" like all these new york beta times sh!tlibs keep saying then why are they even "Mo Money Fo Dem Rail" in the first place?

We have an ignorant and a complete idiot. If nothing is being funded like Amtrak how is it going to run properly? What a dumb ass. As if Liberals are the only people to ride on a train. The ignorance here is amazing, because this should NOT be a political issue like some are making it. It's what's best for Americans as a whole, not Democrats or Republicans. Republicans and Democrats all drive on roads, they all drive on bridges, highways, tunnels, and take trains. There is no reason for the best country in the world to have unsafe bridges and roads with potholes because idiots in congress refuse to fund infrastructure to make it safe and useable for people. There is no reason NOT to invest into our country when other countries massively invest into transportation. Great Britain spends 8 billion into their transportation and the U.S. is lagging behind all these countries. Instead of both parties wasting billions in attack campaign ads, that money should be used to invest into transportation and fixing our roads and making travel more safe for the people.


There is no "leftoid media" when it's the "rightoid media" who is pushing the right's spin on the news and are the ones who own the media.

The railroad was the first use of nationwide transportation and it served the country well. Many people rely on trains to get to work and to get home in the East and in the west. Using a train uses less gas, less pollution, and no traffic jams on the highways. High speed rail would be efficient for statewide travel and would employ many jobs to boost the economy not to mention being less dependent on foreign oil.

We have a poster who doesn't care that people were killed in a train crash, that Republicans decided to cut the Amtrak funds a day after a deadly crash, people will now be less safe on the rail, that we are falling behind other countries in transportation, but wants to blame "sh!tlibs" as the problem to everything when it's his sh!tcons who refuse to invest in America and outsource our American jobs to countries like India and china.

 

[Tictac]

You don't even know the reason why it crashed, so don't make assumptions to push your spin. Obviously there was a mechanical failure somewhere, and the GOP cutting billions from Amtrak will make it possible for more crashes and failures to occur. The republican plan is to eliminate Amtrak all together because they feel it's unnecessary to have it. So with these new cuts and if anything else goes wrong with more crashes, and less people use it, and that gives them the justification to end Amtrak for good. Playing life and death with people's lives is wrong and the GOP should be held accountable.

___________

You don't know "the reason why it crashed" either rage monkey. But that doesn't stop you from pontificating.

And when you have a minute, document "the republican plan to eliminate Amtrak all together" rather than have it operate effieicently and safely.

Lefty rage monkeys cannot tell the difference between what's inside their puny brains and what's outside in the real world. So Projection of their futile rage is all they can manage.

And you embers are the poster boy for the knee-jerk shill.

 

[Kevin S Briefcase]

Another defective gayfaced faggot probably upset about last nights public toilet grinder hookup and latest bout of intestinal parasites crashes his train by travelling at 100mph around a 50mph bend.

As if on que:

*Puppet stringed low IQ sh!tlibs weaned on a steady diet of big chosenite media wave their weak arms at those "evil rethuglicans"...coz screw you dad*

*Mainstream leftoid media scrambles to close all comment sections for fear of narrative change*

*The poz continues*



Danger with the common sense logic trap once again. If it's so popular and "way of the future" like all these new york beta times sh!tlibs keep saying then why are they even "Mo Money Fo Dem Rail" in the first place?

No dumbass. It's the unions and the red tape. Ted Cruz is a POS but has the willpower to fix it.

 

[Kevin S Briefcase]

A rock was thrown at the train but no one has the balls to prosecute the rock throwers because it'll be called racist. Except for Ted Cruz. He would throw the rock throwers in federal prison.

 

[( . )( . )]

No dumbass. It's the unions and the red tape.

We have an ignorant and a complete idiot. If nothing is being funded like Amtrak how is it going to run properly? What a dumb ass.

lol :box: :box: :box:

Have you two retards ever thought taxpayers just might not want to subsidize something which has a history of losing money, which employs overwhelmingly dieversity hires and transports "vibrancy" to communities it normally wouldn't go?

http://freakdeluxe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mel-gibson.jpg

 

[Kevin S Briefcase]

lol :box: :box: :box:

Have you two retards ever thought taxpayers just might not want to subsidize something which has a history of losing money, which employs overwhelmingly dieversity hires and transports "vibrancy" to communities it normally wouldn't go?

http://freakdeluxe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mel-gibson.jpg

You're a double dumbass then. Banning unions and red tape and dumb government rules would allow it to make a profit. Trains can't make money because of unions and government regulations. If Amtrak could run trains when demand is high and charge fares to maximize profit there's money to be made. Eliminate trains which have the fewest passengers.


Your other post is garbage.

 

[Embers84]

Even Republican President like Nixon, Reagan and Bush had no problems funding Amtrak to make it safe.

Romney Would Eliminate Funding For Amtrak Despite Record-High Ridership

August 15, 2012

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/20...ing-for-amtrak-despite-record-high-ridership/



During an interview with Fortune magazine that was published today, Mitt Romney said that he would eliminate federal funding for Amtrak as one of his cuts aimed at balancing the budget:

So first there are programs I would eliminate. Obamacare being one of them but also various subsidy programs — the Amtrak subsidy, the PBS subsidy, the subsidy for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some of these things, like those endowment efforts and PBS I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to strand on their own rather than receiving money borrowed from other countries, as our government does on their behalf.

This is certainly not the first time that Romney has singled out Amtrak for the budget cutting knife. “Amtrak ought to stand on its own feet or its own wheels or whatever you’d say,” he told a crowd earlier this year. But, leaving aside that the cuts Romney highlights are not going to get him anywhere close to balancing the budget, Romney intends to slice Amtrak funding at a time when funding for rail service is more necessary than ever.

Amtrak announced earlier this year that it is on pace to break the ridership record it set last year. By 2040, Amtrak “Amtrak said traffic in the [Northeast] corridor could reach 43.5 million passengers, almost four times the level today.”

However, as the New York Times noted, Amtrak desperately needs some upgrades: “Most days, trains in the Northeast are full. Several locomotives and railcars are 30 years old or more. Aging rails, bridges and tunnels hold down top speeds and limit expansion of the network.” America’s freight train infrastructure is also deteriorating.

Already, the National Association of Railroad Passengers has warned that cuts to Amtrak that are being pushed by House Republicans “would be tantamount to shutting down the entire Amtrak network, because the remaining routes could not cover the system’s overhead costs.” Obviously, eliminating Amtrak’s funding entirely would have much farther reaching consequences.

Since 2012, it's been a Republican plan to gut and cut funding for Amtrak. It has been their goal to end it. like Medicare and Social Security. The highest ridership record with 43.5 million passengers and the right wingers refuse to spend any money for upgrades and keeping it safe. Yeah, it is an outrage that people are dead and injured when they shouldn't and more will be in the future when Amtrak won't have the proper funding to repair old tracks and rail cars. Only so much can be done on a limited budget. Even people who vote Republican are angry at this. Only idiots like you defend everything thing they do at the expense of the public's safety.

Why You Can’t Talk About The Amtrak Derailment Without Talking About Our Infrastructure Crisis

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/05/13/3658146/amtrak-deadly-derailment/



At least six people have died and more than 140 people are injured in the wake of the deadliest Amtrak derailment in recent history. Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 rolled off the tracks while rounding a bend near Philadelphia, according to NBC Philadelphia, while carrying 238 passengers and five crew members. As officials sort through the wreckage and try to determine the cause of the tragedy, the Northeast Corridor — Amtrak’s busiest and most profitable route between Boston and Washington — will be shut down for an indeterminate amount of time.

Already the densest rail route in the U.S., aging Northeast Corridor trains are grappling with more riders than ever. The route has steadily broken ridership records every year for more than a decade — last year, 11.6 million people rode a Northeast Corridor train. But Amtrak has been starved of the funds required to keep up with this increased demand. The Northeast Corridor is shouldering a backlog of repairs expected to require $4.3 billionin fiscal year 2019, while federal funding is expected to dwindle to $872 million.

House Republicans will debate another massive cut to Amtrak on Wednesday. But even if they keep Amtrak funding levels where they are, Congress is guaranteeing more dysfunction and more breakdowns in the system as maintenance costs rise. Those breakdowns can range from creating minor inconveniences, like being 20 minutes late to work, to potential catastrophes, like Tuesday’s derailment.

It’s not yet clear what caused Train 188 to go off the rails, but it is the most recent in aseries of train derailments on the route.

Metro-North, a commuter line shares tracks with Amtrak, has suffered several serious derailments over the past two years. Besides posing serious dangers to riders, these derailments set off a ripple effect that paralyzes the entire system, causing untold setbacks for riders and businesses. Northeast Corridor trains carry “a workforce that contributes $50 billion per year to the United States gross domestic product,” according to the Northeast Corridor Commission.

Meanwhile, the agency is simply unable to keep up with daily wear-and-tear along with the backlog of repairs on bridges and tunnels that date back to the turn of the 20th century, “functionally obsolete” rail interlockings, and trains that rely on 1930s-era components.

In fact, Congress’ refusal to acknowledge Amtrak’s predicament has made American trains so inefficient that it’s actually having a dampening effect on ridership growth. Even though demand for train travel has risen steadily, growth has slowed recently as breakdowns and delays make trains less reliable. “The slower growth in ridership than in recent years is due, in part, to a harsh winter season and on-time performance issues associated with freight train delays and infrastructure in need of replacement,” noted Amtrak’s reportfrom fiscal year 2014.

Congress holds Amtrak to a unique standard by demanding the agency turn a profit per passenger; highways and airports receive about 45 times the subsidies that Amtrak does, according to the National Journal’s Simon Van Zuylen-Wood. Republicans have persistently called for the privatization of the Northeast Corridor, which would gut Amtrak’s primary source of revenue and effectively doom the agency. While that proposal has never gained much traction outside conservative circles, lawmakers have proposedmassive cuts to Amtrak’s budget virtually every chance they get.

Congress is currently battling over a looming deadline for the major federal transportation fund, which will run out of money by the end of May.

The Obama administration has pushed a $478 billion transportation funding bill that would still be adrop in the bucket for the massive infrastructure needs facing the country, but many Republican lawmakers have so far seemed unwilling to consider anything more ambitious than a year-long extension. It remains to be seen if Tuesday’s tragic derailment will provide a jolt of reality in the current debate.

The Republican plan is to starve Amtrak to death so it shuts down. Dangers to riders on dangerous tracks and the GOP Congress doesn't care about millions of people's safety who ride on it each day. The GOP plan is to privatize everything including Social Security so it benefits them. Right Wingers want people to be dependant on foreign oil so their buddies can make profits. They don't want people to use alternative means for transportation. Amtrak makes money but needs to be funded to keep riders safe. Safety should be the concern of people on the road and on the rains but republicans block and gut infrastructure each time giving away corporate welfare to their cronies instead.

 

[Tictac]

Right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers.....

Brainless embers.

 

[speed dawg]

Right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers, right wingers.....

Brainless embers.

:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

No sh*t. He doesn't even realize that you can't even read his drivel through the pages and pages of links and 589 "right wingers" in every post.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Over the decades the American taxpayers have foot over $40 Billion dollars to AmTrak which was supposed to be a loan until they could turn a profit. The management said it would take only two years.

Now over 40 years later and they still have yet to make a profit. Someone in the Government has finally said enough is enough and there still believe it's worth being supported by the entire nation instead of those who use it. Yeah, Hawaiians amongst others feel it's a great deal for them...

The bad thing that even people who have the trains running through their states don't think it's worth their tax dollars. They understand that the best thing is to have a private entity run it for a profit based on the revenue from those who actually use the service.