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Government

Amtrak Turns 40…Called a ‘Massive Failure’ by its Founder

May. 7, 2011 5:01pm Mike Opelka

This week kicks off the 40th Anniversary of the money-sucking, inefficient, outmoded national rail system we call Amtrak.

Amtrak Turns 40...Called a Massive Failure by its Founder

Amtrak – the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (that’s the official name) was born during the Nixon administration.

Amtrak is:

Government owned and controlled
Union-operated, employing more than 20,000 workers
Has a CEO appointed by the president of the United States
Its annual budget is allocated allocated by Congress.

What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.

Let’s start with money. Amtrak loses bucketloads of money every day. The national rail system operates in the red, generating huge losses and has done so each and every year of its existence. And they are not shy about it. From the Amtrak website;

In FY 2010, Amtrak earned approximately $2.51 billion in revenue and incurred approximately $3.74 billion in expense.

That’s over $1.2 billion in losses for the most recent year, putting the overall tab for this antiquated, bloated and inefficient system around $50 billion dollars of taxpayer money.

The embarrassment of Amtrak has even struck a chord with someone who rallied for its creation. Anthony Haswell, founder of the National Association of Railroad Passengers and a person widely recognized as the inspiration for Amtrak, is not happy with the current state of the railroad’s affairs. Mr. Haswell opines on Amtrak in ‘Red State Uprising: How To Take Back America’

Amtrak is a massive failure because it’s wedded to a failed paradigm. It runs trains that serve political purposes as opposed to being responsive to the marketplace. America needs passenger trains in selected areas, but it doesn’t need Amtrak’s antiquated route system, poor service and unreasonable operating deficits.

When the Founding Father of Amtrak calls it a ‘massive failure’ and states that the politicians involved are getting more benefits from it than the passengers and taxpayers, you would hope that someone in the Federal government would respond.

Washington did respond. Their answer to Amtrak’s problems? Spend more money. Throwing money at a problem rarely solves it. Amtrak’s losses have topped a billion dollars each year since 2000. But that won’t deter the current administration from pushing it’s plan to spend $53 billion dollars over the next six years on questionable high-speed rail systems.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is bouncing all around the country next week, announcing plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on a high-speed rail system that should lose even more money than Amtrak. (High speed rail does not have a great track record – just days ago, our own Dan Andros covered the massively over-priced system in China.) There is a certain amount of irony in the fact that Secretary LaHood will make high-speed rail project announcements in both New York City AND Detroit on Monday… but he’s getting from one city to the other via airplanes (we assume the Secretary to be flying on private, government jets too). It would be much more convincing if he chose to travel from NYC to Detroit on Amtrak. – highlighting the current system and giving us an idea of just how much time will be saved when the new faster trains are up and running.

Most private transportation companies have been forced to apply real world solutions in these difficult economic times, yet Amtrak rolls on, acting as if they were exempt from the problem.

An independent 2009 study of Amtrak’s operations and revenue offered some startling facts;

Forty-one of Amtrak’s 44 routes lost money in 2008 with losses ranging from nearly $5 to $462 per passenger depending upon the line, according to analysis by Pew’s Subsidyscope.

The line with the highest per passenger subsidy—the Sunset Limited, which runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles—carried almost 72,000 passengers last year. The California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago to San Francisco, had the second-highest per passenger subsidy of $193 and carried nearly 353,000 passengers in 2008. Pew’s analysis indicates that the average loss per passenger on all 44 of Amtrak’s lines was $32, about four times what the loss would be using Amtrak’s figures: only $8 per passenger. (Amtrak uses a different method for calculating route performance).

The Northeast Corridor has the highest passenger volume of any Amtrak route, carrying nearly 10.9 million people in 2008. The corridor’s high-speed Acela Express made a profit of about $41 per passenger. But the more heavily utilized Northeast Regional, with more than twice as many riders as the Acela, lost almost $5 per passenger.

According to the Pew report, only 3 of Amtrak’s 44 lines are making any money. That statement alone might inspire the CEO of the failing rail service to consider cuts and changes. Of course, having more than 20,000 union employees (85% of those folks are covered by collective bargaining) makes it difficult to change anything that might cause a job to be lost, or a benefit diminished.

And so nothing changes, except the amount on money being wasted on an antiquated mode of public transportation. It is not as if we could not or did not anticipate this situation. Back in 1958, the Interstate Commerce Commission reviewed all transportation modes and decided that passenger rail travel would soon;

“take its place in the transportation museum along with the stagecoach, the side-wheeler and the steam locomotive.”

That statement was made 53 years ago, over a decade before Amtrak was created. And instead of letting passenger rail travel pull into the terminal of the museum system or even allow the private sector have a less-regulated whack at it, Amtrak rolls on…

Amtrak is proud of this as they are celebrating 40 years of costing you money while providing bad service at a high price combined with unpredictable arrival times. We are not kidding. Starting today, the Amtrak 40th Year Anniversary Train is traveling all around the country.

Amtrak Turns 40...Called a Massive Failure by its Founder

A considerable amount of time and money will be spent shuttling the train, merchandise, staff, etc from city to city. If that cost doesn’t make you angry, consider how much money was paid to have this promotional video made to celebrate four decades of massive money losses to serve the transportation needs of less than 2% of the country.

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Comments (121)

nomercy63
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:54pm
Coming to a health care provider near you

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let us prey
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:46pm
You see, me and my homies like to play this game
We call it Amtrak but some call it the train
We all would line up in a single-file line
And take our turns at
waxing the Taxpayers Behinds

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supertas
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:32pm
A forty year epiphany is an epiphany none the less, sort of. Your tax dollars at work.

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as_mad_as_hell
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:32pm
Amtrak was a failure from the outset. I love railroads and trains, but there is no sense spending money on government railway passenger service which has NEVER been in the black. Passenger trains started dying in this country after WW II and never recovered; nobody would buy Amtrak at an auction. The railroads were only too glad to hand over passenger service to the feds because THEY had been losing money for decades. Amtrak is a purely political creation and absolutely unnecessary.

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- Salamander
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:55pm
  But Big Joe gets his RIDE! D.C. to Wilmington! Whooooeeeee! Maybe he ought to get a pad in D.C. and stay overnight so he could get some work done! Oh, I forgot, he now lives at the house over the secret operations center in Bethesda! Gee, did HE say that?
  
  Report this comment
Tony Stark
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:00pm
… it’s a train company, not rocket science. Where’s Pepper, btw? I have to find her…

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- Pepper Potts
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:56pm
  Wildly conflicted… and charmed.
  
  Report this comment
Salamander
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:58pm
Wow, Amtrak Healthcare! What a SCARY THOUGHT!

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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:08pm
  @salamander, better hope you have an emergency, and have to ride amtrak, it well called a slow train wreck rectal exam, okay not that good of a joke but you get the idea, heck you would die before amtrak got you to the hospital, and that is if it was not late.
  
  Report this comment
- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:10pm
  @wsalamander,sorry, it should say , better hope you don’t have an emergency
  
  Report this comment
- Salamander
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:51pm
  I sometimes get a bit carried away in my posts, so I wasn’t surprised, nor offendend, that ‘someone’ wished me an emergency! But, thanks for the subsequent words of encouragement! By the way, I’m 63 and hold multiple part-time jobs. This year I had all W-2 income and no 1099 income and found out, much to my chagrin, that I couldn’t deduct my health insurance, which my employer could do if he offered it to part-timers, or I could have done if I had legitimate 1099 income, rather than statuory part-timer status! Also, I cannot contribute enough to my HSA to cover my health expenses! And, I haven’t been able to find a better employment situation (didn’t qualify for unemployment, as was a sales rep, like so many of the un-counted)! And, HSA contributions STOP when I hit 65, as Medicare is SUPPOSED to ‘care’ for me–but it doesn’t, so I’d need SUPPLEMENTAL! These CLOWNS in WASHINGTON BETTER FIGURE IT OUT! DumbASSES! ALL of ‘em!!! Hmmm, maybe I ought to run!!! AARP watch out!!! Washington watch out! I’d muster my electorate to come speak ON THE FLOOR, get into the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, plead THEIR CASE! Wish we could GET SOME REALITY in the PROCESS! Anytime the GOVERNMENT WRITES A CHECK TO A CITIZEN, unless it’s a refund FOR an OVERPAYMENT, IT IS WRONG! Anytime, the GOVERNMENT ‘subsidizes’ a corporation or industry, IT SHOULDN’T HAVE TAXED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE! This is Kindergarten-level politics! Really simple, guys! IF IT IS COMPLEX, SOMEBODY
  
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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:26pm
  @salamander, preach on brother, we are all in your shoes,well almost, not quite 50 yet, but can relate. if you run, i would vote for you, we need a circus conductor instead of a bunch of clowns,
  
  Report this comment
FAXXON
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:57pm
Auction AMTRAK off to the highest bidder immediately. We, the tax payers, are getting shafted everyday it continues to operate under government control.

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Salamander
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:57pm
Are you suggesting that raising the fare for the Northeast Corridor passenger ONLY $5 (a gas coupon), that their operations would become break-even? And, by raising the fares ONLY $10, they would have a $5 per passenger profit? Gee, how hard is THAT? Is ridership so price-elastic they they would find alternatives for $5 more per ticket? I found that the commuter trains charge MUCH less than Amtrak, so Amtrak is forfeiting a certain amount of ‘commuter’ traffic (say, Philadelphia to New York)!

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mary12153
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:56pm
I had a ride on Amtrak – San Francisco to Vancouver, Canada. It was 7 hours late. The high point from the employees on the train said: “We usually are traveling through this area at night and we are delighted to see Mt. Shasta in the daylight.” We were headed to an Alaskan cruise. The cruise people people require a days advance to being in Vancouver. Now I know why!

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- chips1
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:15pm
  Kansas City to San Diego they made a fortune selling coffee and donuts.
  
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AmericanLass
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:55pm
This worked out so well lets have more of them, all over America. That’s the left’s rational. More funding, more more more more on the backs of the taxpayers.

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tomloy
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:54pm
One of the problems with amtrack is it doesn’t have express trains, and its just as expensive as flying.
Once I checked into going by train to florida from illinois. It would have taken 2 days. It definately should be axed.

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- MercyMe
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 9:25am
  Amtrac is a joke. I tried to go from Phoenix to Ft. Wayne. First I would have to drive the 2+ hours to Tuscon just to get to the closest station. I couldn’t get to Ft.Wayne but could get to (can’t remember name) some small town outside of Ft. Wayne, then drive another 2 hours to my destination.
  
  The Amtract ride would be 62 hours. And would cost more than flying from Phoenix to Ft.Wayne. Yeah, it’s crazy.
  
  Report this comment
jim
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:54pm
Another $40 billion a year will not fix this.

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Salamander
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:53pm
How about a call to privatize Amtrak! Maybe an auction? Bust the union to put a little value in it. If the employees are any good, they’ll keep their jobs. If not, they’ll be outta luck! Maybe an airline would want a more integrated transportation system? Maybe they’d buy the bus companies as well! Better yet, maybe all three would continue to compete and offer a wide variety of choice in getting from here to there! You can bet that Big Joe will remain a regular! they could make him ‘honorary passenger’ and he could cut ads for them — maybe an extension of the Cave Man concept?

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TopOfTheMuffin2u
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:49pm
What a waste of money. The government couldn’t run anything in the black…always red

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jkwinters64
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:43pm
I like trains. I’ve ridden the Amtrak from Los Angeles to Chicago. That being said, shut it down. A private business would have been forced to shut its doors a looooonnng time ago.

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- 338lapua
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:59pm
  Or just privatize it, in certain places…..it makes money.Even with its current “business model” imagine if someone with a profit motive got ahold of it and made some hard decisions. It might survive, it might thrive.
  We will never know will we?
  
  Report this comment
- MontanaRob
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:03pm
  They were shut down by the original owners; Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Western Pacific, Great Northern, Pennsy, NYC, etc.
  Most weren’t profitable after WWII and many lost it in the 50′s after the popularity of the car took off and interstate highway system was built. Then many just went away.
  Liberals thought it would be a good idea to emulate europe, but rail lines over there run just a few miles between towns instead of the dozens or even hundreds(in the west). Also, there were and still are fewer automobiles over there. Da~# liberals!!!
  
  Report this comment
Outlaw_Josey_Wales
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:39pm
And Obama wants more trains. high speed rail sure to fail.

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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:44pm
  out-law-josey-wales, i have never rode amtrak, but i can tell you this there ain’t no way in he– i would ride the governments high sped rail, they can’t fix the problems we have now, just imagine with a high speed rail system when it gets 10,20,30 even 40 years of age. that will be train wreck,
  
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- Salamander
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:02pm
  Did Obama play with his Lionel when he was a kid? Has he ridden the train, say Chicago to Washington (couple of days enroute)! Cross country, vegetables move faster than passenger service, AND is more profitable! Maybe let passenger trains carry high-density local routes, and add a few ‘connector Pullman’s’ to the freight trains to move people between the local routes??? Maybe they could ‘decouple’ when passing by a ‘stop’ and coast into the station, like a glider, leaving the freight to make its time highballing down the line!
  
  Report this comment
- MontanaRob
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:55pm
  From the movie: Lone Watie: I didn’t surrender, but they took my horse and made him surrender. They have him pulling a wagon up in Kansas I bet.
  
  Report this comment
- lngwlkr
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 11:20am
  @salamander Actually, the Chicago to DC train is supposed to take approx 24 hours. It usually ends up being about 28-30 hours. (I have taken this train for many years)
  
  While I am not commenting on the costs, I am commenting on the time.
  
  The reason for delays is not incompetence on Amtrak’s behalf. It is because passenger trains are given lowest priority on most rail lines. Every single year I rode the Chicago to DC train, in the middle of the night in Ohio we were side lined for hours while cargo trains went by us.
  
  Curious thing is, while many people say the method is dead, I have seen the cars go from maybe half-full to completely full every year. More people are taking the train as the govt is more invasive at airports.
  
  Report this comment
deerjerkydave
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:38pm
I enjoy paying for train rides I never take…..NOT!

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- CaliforniaConservative
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 11:01pm
  I don’t like subsidizing airplanes I don’t fly in, schools for other people’s children, highways I don’t drive on, electric cars I won’t own, etc, etc, etc. What’s so different about subsidizing trains?
  
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commonsenseguy
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:38pm
this people, is what the future of health care,and our whole free country, when the government gets it’s hands on something it runs it in the ground, the only business that they can run is their mouths,and they are not any good at that. god help us.

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- SublimeOne
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:19pm
  I got an even better example CommonSenseGuy. A few yrs ago a BROTHEL was taken over by the govt for tax reasons. They ran it right into the garbage heap! So what should that tell all of us here. It’s this. If the govt can’t make money on the OLDEST profession in the world! Just wait until they REALLY get healthcare up and moving!!!!!
  
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wbaranowski
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:36pm
Amtrak: The USPS on rails.

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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:55pm
  @wbaranowski, this is the governments first attempt at giving crap out for free, or cheaply, just look how great this has been, not we can enjoy another 40 years of wasted money, and even more free programs that will cost billions and not go nowhere.
  
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wbaranowski
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:35pm
They should sell it to Dagny Taggert.

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- TEXAG87
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 1:39am
  amen
  
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NeoKong
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:30pm
Don’t worry. The govt. will do much better running health care.

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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:39pm
  @neokong, o boy, can’t wait.
  
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- 338lapua
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:55pm
  Just gotta make sure the “right people” are running it…..
  
  Report this comment
- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:59pm
  @338lapua, the right people, not in the government, and surely not with free healthcare, you think amtrak is a money pit,healthcare has not even started good yet, and they already have money problems, why do ya think they are trying to tax the heck out of us, no way , no thanks to government run anything,heck, they could not even run water,without screwing that up to.
  
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- CatB
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:14pm
  @NEOKONG
  
  LOL … Stock tip … Funeral Homes!
  
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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:17pm
  @catb, grave diggers also. heck i just though how i can save my family,and my home,
  thanks ,catb.
  
  Report this comment
- BetterDays
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:00pm
  I volunteer to run health care. My system is easy, trust in Jesus and if ill or injured pray before seeing a good doctor, you can see whomever you want. The progressives will pay the bill, from the property they collectively left behind as I deported them all allowing them to take one change of clothes and nothing else, bye bye.
  
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- CatB
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:11pm
  @commonsenseguy
  
  No problem … hope it works .. —- .. we could throw out all the progressive/marxist’s and RINO’s in 2012 and REPEAL OBAMACARE and save the country! God help us all!
  
  Report this comment
NickDeringer
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:29pm
No don’t call it “failure” call it “delayed success”

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- RepubliCorp
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:03pm
  For like 500yrs??? LOL
  
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- topperj
  Posted on May 9, 2011 at 2:15pm
  For the government, “Success is NOT an option!” (It’s your money, why should we care?) Or as Alfred E. Newman said, “What, Me worry?”
  
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LadyIzShy
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:27pm
when government runs it.. it fails..

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- lylee
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:25pm
  Maybe we could raise the fare to make it profitable and then give each rider a voucher to cover the fare increase. We could call the voucher “travel stamps”.
  
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ZAP
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:27pm
government,HAHAHAHAAA

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- jpjuve
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:51pm
  who is john galt?
  
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- 82dAirborne
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:09pm
  Where’d he goooooooooooo?????
  
  Report this comment
- GeorgieJo
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:32pm
  Maybe Joey “BFD” Bidet can be a conductor in 2012…..
  
  Report this comment
- OneRepublic4us
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 9:18pm
  We are all John Galt, do what you can!
  
  Report this comment
- Pilgrim Bill
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 7:08am
  Atlas Shrugged Part1. is a disapointment 3 weeks and only 4Mill by thursday.
  
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CatB
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:24pm
My father was an Amtrak engineer for many years and he said this a LONG TIME AGO!

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- jeffyfreezone
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:26pm
  This is chump change, just wait til Obamacare puts private insurers out of business and the govt controls ALL healthcare spending! It will cost us trillions and trillions.
  
  Report this comment
- Finch88
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:44pm
  Just like my local public transportation is a failure.
  
  http://politicalbowl.com – Political Videos
  
  Report this comment
- BetterDays
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:55pm
  Love trains but I hate this current administration, and the one before that, and before that, and before that, and I’m sick an tired of the globalist Pukes running my beloved country into a dust heap! I try to be a forgiving, kind, loving and generous man but I have about turned my cheek to many times Lord Jesus, help me before you must help them Lord. Lord I know you and I know you know me, please Lord if it be Possiable may true Christians have their nation back? But what would we do with it ? Asks the Lord, For it’s is a sinful and perverse nation with no heart to turn from it’s ways and repent. Should allow HE evil to go on forever, no, the cup is near full, have the patience of saints, HE will not tarry forever. Even so Lord come.
  
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- Professional Infidel
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:38pm
  Now on to high speed rail, at how many billion?? which will be a looser unless gas goes to $10,00 A GAL. due to obozos strangeling of our rights.
  
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- Gold Coin & Economic News
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:49pm
  All the more reason to have high speed rail as proposed by the dummycrats. If it doesn’t work, then that’s exactly what they want. Most of our idiot democrat congressmen and senators couldn’t run a lemonade stand.
  
  Report this comment
- GETLIFE
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:00pm
  Guess we cut NASA to pay for AMTRAK.
  
  Report this comment
- SANE_I think
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:43pm
  Amtrak employees make BIG MONEY! 80-90K for an engineer. Unions aint gonna like this talk!
  
  Report this comment
- banjarmon
  Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:35pm
  In a few years we can ride the trains like they do in India, on top, clinging to the sides, Stuffed like sardines in a can.
  
  Report this comment
- jzs
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 12:11am
  BetterDays, you don’t need to post your prayers here. Just your opinions.
  
  Report this comment
- american1st
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 6:13pm
  lets sell it all off to Dagny Taggart and see if she can do a better job of running it….
  
  Report this comment
- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on May 8, 2011 at 10:05pm
  …….
  I don’t know…….
  35 years without a profit must qualify for some kind of record.
  
  Report this comment

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