When I heard about the Amtrak train wreck outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday night my heart stopped for a few seconds. My son lives in Washington D.C. His girlfriend's family lives in NYC. I have family and friends in NYC and friends in Delaware. My husband has colleagues in Philadelphia and NYC. Most of all of those whom we know will take the train when traveling up and down the east coast.
Two months ago we visited our son in Washington, D.C. We took Amtrak to Wilmington, DE to visit friends near the University of Delaware. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride as well as our warm and interesting conversations with the conductors and the passengers. We live in Houston, a city in which our U.S. Rep (R-natch) has been fighting rail here tooth and nail. If he's not fighting rail some other Republican is on some level. My husband and I love rail travel because we've ridden high speed trains all over France, where his family lives. We are beyond frustrated that Texas and the U.S., for that matter, is so far behind our European and Asian counterparts.
So, the other night while I was tweeting about Jeb's gaffe on Iraq suddenly, not even twenty four hours after the train wreck, I saw the tweet House Cuts Budget for Amtrak. At first I thought it was a sick snark. So, I clicked on the link and saw to my amazement that this was no snark. A Twitter frenzy soon erupted about the cuts. Many tweeters were as incredulous as I. All of us had seen the carnage on TV or online. How could Congress be so awfully awful?
Just Hours After Deadly Train Crash Congress set to Debate Proposed Cuts to Amtrak Budget.
The deadly crash of an Amtrak train outside Philadelphia on Tuesday night was expected to put pressure on Congress to reexamine proposed cuts to Amtrak's federal subsidy.
But on Wednesday, just hours after the crash, the House Appropriations Committee backed a measure that would slash Amtrak's budget by $251 million, giving the rail operator $1.1 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
In his February budget, President Barack Obama had asked for $2.5 billion for Amtrak, citing the need for investments in infrastructure and improvements along the Northeast Corridor.
When a reporter asked about the budget cuts to Amtrak given the gravity of the wreck, U.S. House Speaker barked back that the question was stupid and blamed speed for the accident. The train had taken a sharp curve at 106 MPH, 56 miles over the speed limit for that curve. So far no one knows why the train's engineer failed to slow down before reaching the sharp curve. But we do know that Republicans in Congress have been hamstringing Amtrak with its much needed upgrades and safety systems for decades. For example, why hasn't Amtrak straightened a 73 year old sharp curve or at least rerouted the tracks to make the path more safe? The answer to the question is very likely b/c of lack of funding and complicated bureaucratic processes.
Amtrak says it was just months away from installing safety system According to the New York Time's print edition headline "Hurdles Held Up Safety System, Railroad Says. Amtrak Cites Budgets."
Please follow me below the orange gerrymander (h/t to Meteor Blades) to learn how cuts by Congress, shortfalls and rules hampered the installation of a safety system that would have prevented Tuesday night's accident.
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