Rail Passengers Association in the News

Rail Passengers’ staff has had a busy week responding to the FY2021 White House budget proposal released Monday, which calls for the elimination of Amtrak's 15 long-distance routes.

In Railway Age, President and CEO Jim Mathews spoke about the tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of towns who depend on access to the National Network to connect to other parts of the country:

"While we’re confident Congress will once again reject this proposal, we plan on actively fighting back against this attack on the long-distance network—the only passenger train service for 140 million Americans in 220 towns and cities.”

In the Washington Post, Vice President Sean Jeans-Gail said the White House proposal was an insult to the rural Americans who form President Trump’s base, but that the coalition-building work the passenger coalition has done in Congress would carry them through:

“It would be a huge blow to passenger train [travel] in the United States if this was implemented,” Jeans-Gail said of Trump’s budget. “But we have successfully beaten this in the last three years, and I have a high degree of confidence we will be able to do the same thing this year.”

Rail Passengers members have already responded to our call to action, sending over 2,000 messages to 294 US Representatives and 94 Senators in Congress (if you haven’t already taken part in this campaign, you can join in here).

None of this work would happen without your generous support. Your donations help protect Amtrak’s long-distance trains from these attacks, supported our successful campaign to advance restoration of train service to the Gulf Coast, and secured additional federal investment in Fiscal 2020 for all kinds of train service across the US.

Make a donation today! Your support is critical to the Rail Passengers Association’s fight to preserve the long-distance network.