Sense to Utah Senator Bob Bennett means just one thing: financial sense. Here he is explaining why he’ll vote to cut Amtrak’s funding this year:
Rail passenger service across very large numbers of miles between cities that don't naturally connect to each other simply doesn't make sense. . . . [People’s reasons for keeping Amtrak’s remote routes] all come down to nostalgia for the rail service that we all knew when we were young.
For noneconomic and non-nostalgic reasons, I have for the last several years ridden Amtrak's California Zephyr from Salt Lake City to Chicago. The trip creates the tenor for getting the most from a day in The Art Institute of Chicago. From Chicago I go by Amtrak to Pittsburgh and other museums. My reasons for choosing Amtrak:
The social reason. The round trip gives me an appreciation of the lives of thirty people I dine with. Today I remember a number of them and have corresponded with several.
The geography reason. In my private compartment, I read and watch the passing countryside, free of billboards and strip malls, the America that nine of ten Americans have never seen.
The “conducive to reflecting on life” reason. If I just wanted to be in another city I would fly there. I want the slow pace, conducive to reflecting on life, that comes with rail travel.
Also generally lost sight of, Amtrak serves riders who are too large to fit in airplane seats, have health needs best met by a private compartment, or are so afraid to fly they won’t. And if terrorists ever halt air travel, the nation will value the option Amtrak provides.
Unscheduled delays are common; the passengers don’t care. Time isn’t money inside the Zephyr.
Does a life that everywhere has to make financial sense deserve to be called life?
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