hard deadlines

Interesting story in the NYTimes today about the impact of rising fuel prices on America's long-suffering passenger railroad.

Record prices for gasoline and jet fuel should be good news for Amtrak, as travelers look for alternatives to cut the cost of driving and flying.

And they are good news, up to a point.

Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month.
—via The New York Times

Worth reading in its entirety. Buried in the last grafs is yet another reason to favor Obama over McCain. McCain has been an opponent of subsidies (and we know, not just from America, but from around the world, that passenger rail doesn't survive without some government support.) Obama, on the other hand, was co-sponsor of a bill to reward states for intercity rail investments at the same rate as highway matching funds. Which one sounds more like the future, eh?