. Opponents say the plan would "massacre" a viable national transportation system and would have almost no effect on the country's massive national deficit. Supporters say such cutbacks are the only way to get Amtrak out of the taxpayers' pockets. According to a Department of Transportation study, Amtrak is losing $500 million a year. By 1984, $1 billion a year, money that must be paid by the taxpayer.
"Travel rose to its apparent annual peak as the four-day Thanksgiving weekend wound down to a final crush here Sunday. Although final figures aren't available, bus travel from St. Louis was up as much as 60 percent, train travel nearly 50 percent and air travel about 40 percent compared to a typical day, spokesman estimated. Spokesmen for Amtrak, Greyhound and Lambert St. Louis International Airport said they believe the Thanksgiving weekend, as it usually is, was the busiest travel weekend of the year...Corvonne Logan waits in the Amtrak station downtown for her ride home. She returned from Kansas City."
A photograph of an Amtrak train operating over newly installed crossing diamonds at Tower 105 in San Antonio, Texas. Southern Pacific's construction crew is waiting in the clear so it can return to work after the train has passed through the area. The photograph was taken by Mike McGinley.
