Can I Get A Ride?

Each work day, I wake up promptly at 5:00 a.m. so that I can shower, shave, dress, pack my lunch and drive to the train station in order to board the 6:24 a.m. Amtrak train to Chicago.  I arrive in the Windy City shortly before 8:00 a.m.  A short walk to my office in the Loop and I'm clocked in.  I repeat this process in reverse at 5:00 p.m. and arrive back home around 6:45 p.m.  All this amounts to a twelve hour work day including my commuting time.

Am I complaining - no, not really.  Why?  Because I love my job.  No, seriously - I love my job!  What really jerks my chain however is the possibility that I could have been riding on a high speed train were it not for Governor Scott Walker's campaign promise to kill high speed rail in Wisconsin.  Once elected, he did just that by returning a federal grant to the U.S. Department of Transportation that was supposed to be an investment in high speed rail infrastructure connecting Wisconsin to the rest of the Midwest.  This regional system of high speed routes would have connected Milwaukee to the Twin Cities, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland and other destinations.

Why did Governor Walker want to kill high speed rail in Wisconsin? You ask.  Because he and his Republicon cronies believe, "nobody will ride it."  Forget the fact that the Hiawatha Amtrak line between Milwaukee and Chicago is one of the busiest routes Amtrak operates.  Every work day the train is full of individuals that commute like I do to white collar career employment opportunities in Illinois.  A significant number of these daily commuters work at Miller Coors corporate headquarters and in the financial sector.  To add insult to injury, our Republicon presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has proposed the elimination of federal funding for Amtrak among other publicly supported  ventures like PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.  This is coming from an individual who claims he will create 12 million jobs during his first term as President.  

There are no viable private passenger rail services in the Midwest.  Privatization is not an option.  If federal subsidies for Amtrak are eliminated, we will be forced to attempt to drive to work and  park in Chicago.  Without Amtrak, I would not be able to afford my commute.  I would venture a guess that many others who ride the train every day would not be able to afford the commute either.  Why would a candidate who claims he wants to create more jobs take away my opportunity to get to mine?  If you think federal subsidies for Amtrak are a waste of tax payer dollars, check out federal subsidies for our interstate system and airports and tell me you still think passenger rail is a raw deal.