There is suspicion of a sort of symbiotic relationship between the Bush
Administration and the manufacturers of buses and their component parts.
It is hard to comprehend what goes on here. Yes, rail is more expensive
to build but it is less costly to operate, so in the long run it pays to
have rail. Riders identify with fixed guide-way rail lines. They know
rail lines are unlikely to disappear. A bus route can be changed
overnight. I have no idea what the next Administration will do about
this issue. One never can tell. President Jimmy Carter turned out to be
a much more determined opponent of Amtrak than did President Ronald
Reagan, who talked of defunding Amtrak but always gave in to the strong
pro-Amtrak sentiment in the Congress. None of the candidates for
President thus far has been asked about streetcars so we simply don't
know how the current controversy will be resolved.
Meanwhile, interest in streetcars is reaching critical mass.
Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), the chief Congressional proponent
of streetcars, is optimistic. He believes this is an idea whose time has
come. He thinks with so many cities and towns considering restoring
streetcars no Presidential Administration would be able to resist this
idea in the long run. He is considering introducing a stand-alone bill
to fund streetcars. We know President Bush would veto such a bill but we
don't know what the others would do. We know that Senator John S.
McCain, III has been a fierce opponent of Amtrak but we don't have much
clue which way he would go on this issue.
I spent much of my young life going to photograph last runs of streetcar
systems. I even ran two charters just before the Milwaukee system was
abandoned. Today if I spent my remaining years doing little else I still
couldn't get to the openings of all of the streetcar lines under
construction. This was a technology which came close to dying out
completely in the 1970s. It is difficult to suppress a good idea. Yet I
never thought I would live to see this day.