Though not directly related to preservation, I thought some might like this letter from NARP to the recently-resigned Norman Mineta:

http://www.railnews.net/cgi-bin/news/go ... a06132006/

I think it does have something to do with preservation. One of the components driving business to rail preservation sites is missing. Nostalgia. Who remembers trains as a daily part of life? The Strasburg Rail Road's customer base was built, in the first couple decades, on nostalgia.

The best way to support train travel is to ride Amtrak as often as possible. It is kind of like voting, and too many people think their single vote doesn't count. Despite the legion of problems Amtrak has, both self imposed and otherwise, it is all we have and it could disappear if some in government have their way.

Who would have thought that trolleys would disappear? And how much is it costing to bring them back a half century later? Scrapping something and starting over is very costly, and Amtrak is not so bad that we need to put ourselves through that expensive, and most likely, counter productive process.

Without a national sense of what railroads are, what they do, and the need for them, rail preservation is like a fish out of water. There is no reference point.

I, like most people, don't have time to travel by train. I usually don't have time to vote either. I make time for both. At a time when Amtrak is fighting for its life (when isn't it?), if people in the rail preservation industry can't make the effort to ride the train, who will?

I sincerely hope the departure of Mr. Mineta will be a positive for Amtrak. It would be hard to imagine someone with less foresight and common sense taking his place.

Without getting too deep into politics, Mineta is said to have been an author of ISTEA legislation, and some I've talked to in San Jose said he helped with getting light rail there, which also hosts historic trolleys. One can commend him for trying to work within the existing system of another political party, but it appears he got a little too close to the opposition as time went on.

I strongly second what Mr. Moedinger said. The best way we can help insure Amtraks survival(and improvement) is to use the service whenever possible. Bad as it may be on occassion, it's all we've got.
I can testify from my 5 years serving as an Amtrak Director that the BOD does read and take heed of letters recieved from customers-so if you have any constructive suggestions take a few minutes and communicate them to HQ.
Hard to tell if Minetas leaving will be a plus or minus, although it's hard to imagine his replacement being any more Amtrak negative than he was?
Time will soon tell.
Ross Rowland