GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- There is wide support among the American public for the continued government funding of Amtrak, the national passenger train service.
A Gallup poll conducted in late October indicates that almost seven out of ten Americans feel that the federal government should continue to fund Amtrak "in order to ensure that the U.S. has a national train service". Only about a quarter agree that the federal government should stop funding Amtrak even if that means "the train service could go out of business if it doesn't operate profitably on its own".
These pro-Amtrak sentiments hold even among the majority of Americans, who would be unaffected if Amtrak were to cease operations. Sixty-four percent of Americans say that they personally would not be negatively affected or inconvenienced in any way if Amtrak were to go out of business. Nevertheless, sentiment that the government should continue its funding of Amtrak is at 62% among this group. (A still higher number of those who would be affected by the train service's demise, 81%, favor continued government support.)
Estimates made by Amtrak critics such as Arizona Senator John McCain are that 20 billion dollars have been spent on Amtrak since its creation in 1971. The Senate recently passed a bill providing billions more in financial support for the railroad through the year 2000. House consideration of the measure is expected to be delayed until next year. There is general consensus that without government subsidies the passenger service would quickly go out of business.
METHODOLOGY
The current results are based on telephone interviews with a
randomly selected national sample of 631 adults, conducted October
27, 1997. For results based on a sample of this size, one can say
with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling
and other random effects could be plus or minus 4 percentage
points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and
practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or
bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Which comes closer to your view concerning Amtrak, the national train service -- the federal government should continue to provide funding for the cost of running Amtrak, in order to ensure that the U.S. has a national train service, or, the federal government should stop funding Amtrak, even if that means the train service could go out of business if it doesn't operate profitably on its own?
| Affected by Loss of Amtrak | |||
| Total (631) |
Yes (235) |
No (396) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Continue funding | 69% | 81% | 62% |
| Stop funding | 26 | 15 | 32 |
| Neither/other (vol.) | 1 | * | 1 |
| No opinion | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| ___ | ___ | ___ | |
| 100% | 100% | 100% | |
