HURST, Texas — President Donald Trump and his grip on the Republican party is threatening the progress that U.S. passenger rail has made over the last few years, transportation experts say.
Amtrak — and passenger trains in general — historically have counted on rural Republicans for protection against Amtrak funding cuts. But the Trump administration is putting that loyalty to the test, according to panelists who spoke Tuesday at the Southwestern Rail Conference in Hurst, Texas.
A decline in bus and airline service to many rural areas has elevated the importance of passenger rail, said John Robert Smith, chair of the nonprofit group Transportation for America. That in turn has created allies among some Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Steve Daines of Montana, he said.
Yet that support now is being set against Trump’s aggressive attempts to shrink the size and scope of the federal government. It’s still unclear whether those efforts will derail recent gains by U.S. passenger rail, but Smith warned that attempts to scale back rail service in rural areas could hurt many of the voters who backed Trump in the last election.
