Highway spending

The Dec. 19 letter "Taxes and trains" needs some balance.

It says "Amtrak is owned by the government (and is) dependent on taxes and run by bureaucrats." It proposes that Amtrak be scrapped and "the money wasted on Amtrak ... be spent on real improvements in highways, America's true public transit system."

The government had to take over railroads during World War I to accomplish transportation needs because government regulators (Interstate Commerce Commission) had bankrupted them. Subsequent progress in restoring private ownership enabled railroads to handle needs of World War II. (Neither could have been handled by highways.) However, the government's next action was to create the Interstate Highway System and outspend the railroads.

Highways are "owned by the government and dependent on taxes and run by bureaucrats." If that damns Amtrak it damns highways.

Yesterday a few snowflakes threw the area into panic and actual snowfall elsewhere shut down highways. Railroads plowed through and subways ran oblivious to snow, at about a 20th the cost of autos.

David E. Bosley,

Grifton