Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Gunn Fired at Amtrak
There is a lot I would like to say about Amtrak. In fact, I have entirely too much on my mind when it comes to passenger trains. David Gunn was fired today as Amtrak’s President. It was a sorry ending to a great career. He was offered the opportunity to resign and refused. That tells me that Gunn was calling the hand of this corrupt administration and its’ greedy policies.
Amtrak has been seriously mismanaged for a number of years and most of that was previous to Gunn’s arrival two years ago. He would not willingly submit to a purely political scheme to permanently kill any opportunity the American people out west of Philly might get for real transportation alternatives. Bush knows that his hold on federal power may be ending as soon as mid-term elections and you should be braced for more desperate and wild power grabs throughout the government calculated to pamper the wealthy and bash the little guy.
Long distance trans serving places like Arkansas are public enemy number one in the new regime. Conservative windbags will be full of the typical lies and so-called friends of Amtrak will be armed with plenty of misinformation. My advice for reading stories and editorials dealing with Amtrak is to be skeptical.
And, yes, Amtrak does matter. Remember 9/11.
Is Amtrak a mess? Yep. Ever heard of Delta Airlines? How about Northwest? There are many bad carriers. There is only one national passenger railroad and we need the service it offers just as much as the airlines.
Amtrak has been seriously mismanaged for a number of years and most of that was previous to Gunn’s arrival two years ago. He would not willingly submit to a purely political scheme to permanently kill any opportunity the American people out west of Philly might get for real transportation alternatives. Bush knows that his hold on federal power may be ending as soon as mid-term elections and you should be braced for more desperate and wild power grabs throughout the government calculated to pamper the wealthy and bash the little guy.
Long distance trans serving places like Arkansas are public enemy number one in the new regime. Conservative windbags will be full of the typical lies and so-called friends of Amtrak will be armed with plenty of misinformation. My advice for reading stories and editorials dealing with Amtrak is to be skeptical.
And, yes, Amtrak does matter. Remember 9/11.
Is Amtrak a mess? Yep. Ever heard of Delta Airlines? How about Northwest? There are many bad carriers. There is only one national passenger railroad and we need the service it offers just as much as the airlines.
