Amtrak's Strategic Importance

The United States was built not just by the hard work and dedication of people from every single ethnic background -- it was built on the strength and extent of the nation's railroad network. The United States would not be so vast, from the East Coast megalopolis area of Boston, New York and Washington D.C. to the small rural towns of the Midwest to the opposite coast; the West Coast, where an entire new frontier was opened up for expansion and opportunity.

It was the Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869; that allowed a new era to begin however through the late 20th Century, the Railroad industry was in shambles and on the brink of collapse. President Nixon was forced to approve Amtrak (the only national provider of inter-city service today) to keep even a small fracture of passenger travel open but it was the airlines that had taken over but now in 2008, we truly see the strategic importance of keeping our railroads alive with gasoline more expensive than it has in the last 8 years and airlines failing left and right; this is perhaps the golden moment railroads have been waiting for.

Amtrak, which is officially known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, but does business under the former title, currently is underfunded and underutilized. If there was no Northeast Corridor (Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Trenton-Washington D.C.) and the the network throughout California; there would be no Amtrak today. With prices in fuel increasing, people are using more and more public transit systems than they have in the last 40 years and this will only continue to be used since there is no prediction as to when the economic climate in airlines will be in their favor.

Regarding airlines: as they continue to cut routes to/from smaller, less profitable locations; these unfortunate communities have lost one of their only options for transportation, forcing them to drive, thus adding more cars onto the nation's highways and in direct response, adding more greenhouse gases into the environment which impacts global warming. If the railway was present in these communities, more people would use the train and their local economies would not be hurt as much by the loss of the airline or effects of driving.

Below is a map of the current Amtrak network:


Note the gaps in service - these areas could see much improvement and perhaps greater expansion in their local economies if Amtrak was present. Amtrak barely owns the rails it runs on -- almost all the tracks are owned by private frighting companies which dispatch trains via their own operators. So this is a second blow -- lack of unity on top of lacking services to rural, out-of-the way communities. What about the other factors that play into this?

Money. Everything revolves around money in this day and age and Amtrak barely has the funds to operate. As of the last Federal Budget, Amtrak received $1,325,000,000 from the Federal Government's general fund. This is an embarrassment. Other developed, industrialized countries spend more on their rail networks than ours. If we are truly one amongst the French, the Germans, the Spanish and even the Japanese, we need to give more money to Amtrak. Only money will allow the network to expand. The majority of Amtrak's budget is spent into its Northeast operations (no surprise here since this is where 75% of its ridership is) and it getting costlier and costlier to run.

Without Amtrak or railroads in general, America's economy would be on the brink of irrefutable devastation alas, President-Elect Barack Obama brings hope to Amtrak as he will be a vocal supporter of additional funding and believes that with careful investment and innovation - America will see the expansion and revival of rail transit in the United States. Obama was the cosponsor of the following act: The Passenger Rail Investment and Innovation Act of 2007. May we see greater days ahead of the expansion, renovation, revitalization and revival of passenger transportation in the United States.