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Washington Post Poll: Amtrak Subsidy Support Strong

Monday, Aug. 5, 2002

The latest Washington Post poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,012 randomly selected adults nationwide and was conducted July 26 - 30, 2002. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points, and somewhat higher for subgroups. Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error in this or any other public opinion poll. Interviewing was conducted byICR/ International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

1. The passenger train service Amtrak lost over a billion dollars last year and relies on loans and subsidies from the federal government to keep running. Which of these three options would you favor?

	End all federal aid to Amtrak, even if it means that passenger train service in some parts of the country will be shut down	Increase federal aid to Amtrak so it can add more trains and routes, even it means Amtrak might lose even more money	Keep federal aid to Amtrak at current levels	Don’t know
7/30/02/	17	20	51	13

(Asked of respondents who favor keeping federal aid at current levels; n = 489)

2. If you had to choose, are you more inclined to end all federal aid to Amtrak or to increase federal aid to Amtrak?

	End all federal aid to Amtrak	Increase federal aid to Amtrak	Don’t know
7/30/02	29	58	13

1/2. Combo Table

	End all federal aid to Amtrak	Increase federal aid to Amtrak	--Keep federal aid to Amtrak at current levels--			Don’t know
	End all federal aid to Amtrak	Increase federal aid to Amtrak	NET	More inclined to end all federal aid to Amtrak if had to choose	More inclined to increase federal aid to Amtrak if had to choose	Don’t know
7/30/02	17	20	51	15	23	13

1/2. Leaned Table

	End all federal aid to Amtrak (leaned)	Increase federal aid to Amtrak (leaned)	Keep federal aid to Amtrak at current levels	Don’t know
7/30/02	31	49	7	13