This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues.

According to this Sun-Times article, Congress is discussing cuts to Amtrak that would eliminate funding to the "City of New Orleans".

I know it's pork, but the trains are the one brand of pork I think many of us rural communities really can't survive without. And, with the feds dumping the financial burden onto the individual states, methinks I hear the rails' death knell. After all, knowing the way Springfield has behaved of late, I can't see them giving a rat's patootie about anything other than Chicago itself. Would the State of IL support this, knowing how much it costs per passenger to keep most longer runs operating? Do we have enough "foamers" in our state capital to vote in favor of the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers?

I live within earshot of the trains. Even in winter, with my windows closed, I am sung to sleep by the freight trains passing through my town. It's the sweetest modern lullabye I know.