Why Didn’t We Think of That?

It’s frustrating to be an advocate for rail transportation in the U.S. There are many obvious reasons why our government should launch a crash program to expand and improve our national rail system: higher and higher prices for gasoline, multiple benefits to the environment, and steadily increasing ridership on already over-taxed rail systems, from commuter lines to long-distance trains.

Still, the Bush administration persists in its efforts to gut, if not kill, Amtrak … witness their proposed budget, in which Amtrak funding would be slashed by 40 percent. (Thankfully, Congress will not permit that idiocy.)

Meanwhile, it seems that the airline industry has but to ask and the federal coffers open and money just pours out. One reason for all that generosity was highlighted in an Associated Press story that appeared today in many national newspapers, including several Hawaii media.

It seems that a lot of the Federal Aviation Administration’s top officials have left that agency to take big shot jobs with the various airlines … either that or with lobbying firms whose mission in life is to convince the FAA to make life easier for the airlines. And it’s worked, with more and more deregulation of the industry and billions of dollars in bailouts.

Gee … who better to guard the hen house than the fox?