(The Associated Press circulated the following article on February 14.)
CHICAGO — President Bush’s transportation secretary says the Amtrak system is dying and needs a top-to-bottom overhaul.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was in Chicago today to lay out Bush’s vision for the money-losing passenger rail system.
Mineta says Bush wants the federal government to match the states 50-50 on investments in rail infrastructure like tracks, stations and trains.
He says infrastructure like Chicago’s Union Station should be owned by a regional operator instead of Amtrak, which would continue to operate trains under the plan.
Mineta says Bush’s budget won’t allocate any money for Amtrak operations unless Congress approves the sweeping overhaul.
Amtrak employs two-thousand people in Illinois and served three (M) million passengers in the state last year.