Hello, Congress? Is Anyone Listening? Hello? Hello??

I really don’t know what it takes to penetrate some of the haze surrounding a lot of Congressional offices when it comes to the question of passenger rail and how to pay for it.
Some of that haze comes from conservative ideology, of course, and certainly a lot of it is cynical political pandering.  But, unless they’re complete idiots – there are a few*, of course – savvy politicians, be they from the left or the right, are all interested in and are guided to some extent  by what their constituents want.  Their job, after all, is to represent us!
OK, so here’s something for those representatives to chew on: In a recent poll conducted in six mid-western and western states in which passenger rail is an issue for one reason or another – people identifying themselves as Republican, Democrat or Independent – favor keeping or expanding Amtrak Service. Click here for more information.
How many of those people support passenger rail? A full 70 percent … and those are voters!
Polls like this one, along with hard numbers showing Amtrak ridership steadily increasing and setting new records every year, should have an impact on how these representativesvote when it comes to funding Amtrak at levels that would permit improving and expanding passenger rail service in the U.S. 
One would certainly think so, anyway.
*See Rep. John Mica (R-Florida), among others.