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Frommer takes on Amtrak foes

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Arthur Frommer recently opined about the need to support Amtrack in this new era of high priced oil and crumbling air and road infrastructure. Much to his surprise, he received a healthy dose of negative feedback, much of it he described as "idealogical." Most of the following commentary sounds like something we've said for years, but it's always nice to hear it from other quarters. Frommer writes: [i]A recent response from one of these Amtrak-must-run-at-a-profit folk reads: "I personally believe this should not be funded with taxpayer money. We've been down this road before, and the results are not promising." What's strange about these responses is that none of them makes the same argument with respect to cars and planes. The interstate highway system does not run at a profit. Yet every two years, Congress appropriates literally tens of billions of dollars for the maintenance and expansion of our interstate highways, so that more people can make long-distance trips by car. (Is it possible that the oil industry has something to do with that funding?) Operating those highways at a profit would require that each U.S. interstate become a toll road, demanding ruinous fees from motorists, and not one of the responders to my blog would be in favor of that. [/i] Read the commentary [url=http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/travel/frommer/5332418.html]here.[/url] We published the "When I'm King" Countertop piece almost ten years ago that proposed largely (among other suggestions) the same thing. Read that [url=http://www.roadsideonline.com/commentcard/whenking.html]here.[/url] .