Some Pols Insist on Doing Exactly the Wrong Thing

Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express leaves Rutland, Vermont, every morning, swings west and crosses the New York State line, runs down to Albany, then follows the Hudson River south to New York City. Connections there will take passengers on down the east coast to Washington. The return trip leaves New York’s Penn Station in the middle of the afternoon and gets back to Rutland just after 9:00 p.m.

For many years, the Ethan Allen has been partially funded by the State of Vermont. But the administration of Republican Governor Jim Douglas, in order to trim the state’s budget, is recommending an end to the subsidy … and that would, in turn, mean an end to the Ethan Allen.

Where is the logic in cutting out a train that more and more people are using? In fact, the Ethan Allen’s ridership increased a whopping 17.5 percent in 2008. What the hell do Republicans have against rail, anyway? I suppose it’s ideology … a knee-jerk antipathy for any government subsidy of any kind. But when people by the millions all over the country are giving up their cars and getting into public transport, this is just plain dumb!

(By the way, care to hazard a guess as to another area of the state budget where Douglas proposes to chop? Of course … public schools!)

Well, Vermonters are upset and a bunch of them showed up at the Rutland Amtrak station the other day to make their feelings known. The Rutland newspaper said the crowd numbered about a hundred, but Chris Parker, a member of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) organized the rally and says there were at least 200 protesters there. Whatever the number, they got the attention of the local politicians and there is hope that cooler and less ideological heads in the legislature will prevail and the Ethan Allen Express will be saved.

But – sheesh!! – it’s certainly frustrating having to fight the same battle over and over again.