Let’s save, not dismantle Amtrak

As Washington talks of dramatic spending cuts, Amtrak looms as a victim. House Republicans are talking about killing Amtrak’s long-distance trains. Forty-two percent of passengers with disabilities who traveled on Amtrak in fiscal year 2010 rode these overnight services, as the U.S. looks to accommodate disabled veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,

Congress needs to improve these critical national transportation links, not eliminate them. Thanks in part to high gasoline prices, May was Amtrak’s 19th straight month of year-over-year ridership growth. Instead of debating a partial or total Amtrak shutdown, Congress should prepare for more riders by investing in additional capacity.

These investments will create good-paying jobs for Americans, providing a much-needed boost to private-sector businesses that have been hard hit by the recession. With strict “Made-in-America provisions, orders for new train equipment will benefit the manufacturing sector in particular.

As a voter, I’m concerned about the deficit. But we can’t fix that problem by unfairly targeting a program that accounts for .037 percent of our country’s budget. Let’s all call on Senators Durbin and Kirk and Representative Roskam to protect funding for this vital piece of our nation’s transportation system.

Terry Tallian

Wood Dale