Hurricane Katrina wipes out rails

There's no doubt that when Katrina blew into the Gulf and onto the shores of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana it did as much damage as the tsunami in the far east. Towns were wiped out, homes and businesses disappeared, several hundred people lost their lives and those who survived may never recover their lives as they once knew them. Considering how much of the rail track runs so close to the shore and at water level across marshes it's no surprise that most of it is gone. The Florida to New Orleans run of the Sunset Ltd may never return considering how this particular line of the Amtrak system has been so disliked by the government.

To make matters worse a Republican Study Commission reviewed the budget and came up with a spending cut plan to help offset the billions which will be needed to rebuild what the hurricane destroyed. Not the least of these cuts, which cut back by millions every program in the budget, were those affecting transportation. Although the federal subsidy for Amtrak took a big hit, at least the highway 'earmarks' were cut back more proportionately. As usual short-sightedness reigns supreme and the administration and Congress can't see beyond their noses when it comes to passenger rail.

Of course, the freight lines will put some of their profits which runs into the billions into replacing what they need to enable the 'goods trains' to continue to transport cars, grain, coal, whatever is carried in containers from one coast to the other or from one border to the other.