The only reason for the creation of AmTrak was that the government took the mail off the trains and sent all mail by air in the continental U.S. The railroads lost the revenue that paid for passenger service. Unfortunately, now we face the problem of ignorant lawmakers who think we should abolish all public support of railroads because, according to them in their ignorance passenger trains are the only form of transportation that receives government subsidies. They just don"t know who pays for highways and airports, or they know and are lying to us. Since a politician would NEVER lie, I must assume they are just plain ignorant.