Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan) was excited and upbeat about the future of the Southwest Chief earlier this month. The federal government had awarded the third TIGER Grant in five years to help with improvements to the rails the long-distance train that stops in Newton uses as it crosses the western half of the country.
But then the bottom fell out of the effort — and not only had Amtrak pulled $3 million in matching funds for the grant, the CEO met with six senators on Capitol Hill to show plans of stubbing the train and replacing it with charter buses between Garden City and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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