Help bring fast trains to the Midwest

An e-mail from the Midwest High Speed Rail Association:

The last six months have brought tremendous progress toward the realization of high-speed rail. But the work is not yet done. The Fall Congressional session begins today and your Representatives and Senators are returning to DC to vote on major initiatives, such as the FY2010 budget. This is where the heavy lifting begins.

We have a fantastic opportunity to build the momentum for high-speed rail. The full House has voted to appropriate $4 billion for high-speed rail in FY2010. The Senate Appropriations committee, however, has suggested just $1.2 billion. Our challenge in September is to close this gap and get the Senate to match the House.

Our opposition knows that this is a critical fight, and they also fear we have a good chance of bringing about real change – hence their stepped-up efforts to kill high-speed rail and all other passenger rail projects. The anti-rail lobby has a PR machine at its disposal that can spread its anti-train message quickly and effectively.

But we are expanding our efforts as well. We are working with professional researchers to get strong supporting data validating the benefits of high-speed rail. We’re also expanding our media outreach efforts to fight the misinformation that’s being spread about our cause. And as always, we continue our work to develop grassroots support throughout the region.

We need your help to do all of this!

Please make a donation today so that we can expand our fight to bring fast, frequent and dependable trains to the entire Midwest.

As a special incentive, anyone who donates $25.00 or more during the month of September will have their donation matched by Claude Luisada, one of our founding members. Your donation will have twice the impact! You’ll also be eligible to receive a copy of our Transit Riders’ Alliance poster.

Please consider joining us in this critical fight for the future of high-speed rail.

Also, please save October 9 and October 10 for a celebration of our recent successes and our fall meeting.

Click here to donate to the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.