Congresswoman Brown Strongly Supports Increased Funding for Amtrak

Congresswoman Brown Strongly Supports Increased Funding for Amtrak

Congresswoman Corrine Brown, the Ranking Member of the Transportation's Railroad Subcommittee, voted to give Amtrak an increase of $214 million by supporting the LaTourette-Oberstar amendment. While the amendment does not provide Amtrak with the full cash infusion it needs to restore and expand its infrastructure or to serve America's growing passenger rail needs, it is certainly a move in the right direction.

"Undoubtedly, this represents a good first step in the effort to save our national rail system. The original $900 million included in our Committee bill is simply not enough to support Amtrak and its nearly 25,000 million users. In my opinion, the demise of Amtrak would outright devastate our transportation system and our economy as passengers, businesses, states and workers would wind up paying the price.

Indeed, even though five times as many people ride on trains as they do airplanes every day, and while our nation's freight demand is expected to nearly double by 2020, we continue to spend billions of dollars on aviation and highways while our rail system repeatedly gets shortchanged by the Administration and this Congress.

Today however, I would like to commend the Congress, which has demonstrated that it recognizes Amtrak's role as a critical transportation link to thousands of communities and as an essential component of our national transportation system," said Congresswoman Brown.

http://www.house.gov/list/press/fl03_brown/pr_060614_amtrakfunding.html