Rail (il)logic on display

Steve Otto, Tribune columnist, unwittingly makes the case against further expansion of Amtrak today.

Trib reporter Ted Jackovics wrote about a new release from the Brookings Institution suggesting we need a better national rail plan. No kidding.

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Amtrak, which was created in 1970, has steadily deteriorated. 

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Following Hurricane Katrina, the link from New Orleans to Jacksonville was eliminated. Although the track has been repaired, so far Amtrak has not resumed service, saying it was losing money. 

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It's bad enough the United States is dragging badly in rail transportation. It's worse that Florida is at the tail end of the rest of the country.

Losing money, Amtrak did not resume service.  What a concept.

We've already addressed Ted Jackovics article.  To recall,

Amtrak accounts for just 0.1% of the nation's passenger travel but gets more taxpayer dollars than other popular modes of transportation such as buses and airlines. Over the past five years, Amtrak has received an annual taxpayer subsidy of more than $1.4 billion. All that money is spent without a plan according Bookings. 

With successes over 43 years in a government sponsored institution like Amtrak, trying to take us back to technologies from old Western movies, we need more?

No kidding.