John Mica, a Republican congressman from Florida, has made a political career out of denigrating Amtrak. And he does it with a sneer. For instance, he always – and I mean always– refers to Amtrak as “America’s soviet-style railroad”. He delivers the line, then pauses … waiting, with a smirk, for his audience to react….
Early next week I’ll be leaving for the annual NARP* meeting in Washington. It will include two full days of meetings and one we call “Day on The Hill”. That’s when we break into small groups and visit our own individual members of Congress, asking support for passenger rail in general and Amtrak in particular….
It’s no secret that Republicans in Congress, egged on by conservative pundits like Michael Barone and libertarian “think tanks” like the Cato Institute, have been critical of Amtrak for years. Their hot button is the annual subsidy Amtrak gets from the federal government. (They’re agin it.) Among transportation experts, however, it’s accepted as a certainty…
Comes now the news that freshman Congressman Jeff Denham of California has been appointed chair of a key subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee … specifically the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials subcommittee. Essentially, this is the guy in the U.S. House of Representatives who is responsible for oversight of America’s railroads. And this guy…