Budgeters derail hopes of Amtrak passengers

0 Comments | Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), July, 2003

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Linda and John Franklin are such devoted antique car buffs that they traveled from their Creswell home to Dearborn, Mich., this summer for the 100th anniversary of the Ford Motor Company.

But they chose the train - not the automobile - to make the trek.

James Yarger says riding the rails is a big part of his business career and his personal life: He travels to Seattle from Eugene at least two times a month as part of his job as a restaurant equipment designer; and with a fiancee living in the same Washington city, one of them is riding the rails just about every weekend.

For Christiana Dugan, a Eugene resident who swore off car ownership a decade ago, the train is an extension of the public...