Passage Rail News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Products weren't shovel ready. i'll point out one example. you're originally from washington, d.c. metro is a service that a lot of republican staffers here on capitol hill desperately use to get incapital. remember, in 2009 metro had a deadly accident over nine people were killed. they want to cut that budget in half. so there really is no desire to necessarily help rail unless -- even if it's beneficial to their staff, beneficial to people who work for them because of this overarching idea of it's not in my backyard i don't necessarily care at this moment. >> well fiscal hawkishness is real....

Leading champions in the senate the last time we authorized passage rail it was trent lott republican from mississippi, and a democrat from new jersey. so it can be a bipartisan issue. in fact, tomorrow the senate will introduce its rail authorization act, and once again, it's a mississippi-new jersey connection. a conservative republican from mississippi, and cory booker a liberal democrat from new jersey. but they each see a different face of passage rail for the people they serve and they have have worked together on a bill that i am optimistic will be a more positive bill for passage rail....

Needs to be connected to that system. so in spite of gross underinvestment, amtrak has continued to serve the nation. keep in mind that there is no transportation system in the world that pays for itself out of its fare box. no rail system no highway system does nor does our airway system. think of all the investment in air traffic controllers, airports runways, tsa agents. we don't think about that as an investment in air, yet it is. and we invest precious little in passage rail. and we definitely need that passage rail connection to connect our economies, large cities small cities internatio...

Funding has been a political fight. since its founding 45 years ago, amtrak and who should pay for amtrak has been the subject of perpetual debate. when amtrak was created in 1970 by the nixon administration, it was designated a for-profit corporation. the federal government would give it enough money to start and then the goal was for amtrak to become self-sufficient and eventually turn a profit. the problem, that never happened. and since its first day hitting the tracks on may 1st 1971 congress has continued to pay for amtrak to operate. another problem, it probably hasn't been funded enoug...

To raise defense spending and take it all out of defense, out of domestic spending just like the rail and the amtrak that we've had here today. there is a real link between what you're able to fund and how much safety you assure the public that it's getting. >> luke, at what point infrastructure was not a partisan issue. ronald reagan was the person who said rebuilding our infrastructure is an investment in tomorrow that we must make today. it would seem, though that the battle is as pitched as ever and decidedly on partisan lines today. what can you tell us about what happened on capitol hill...