Some students love Amtrak and use it frequently to get to places such as Chicago. Others, who prefer driving, couldn't care less if it went bankrupt. Since both highways and railways are publicly funded, the debate over their respective merits deserve some attention.

Amtrak runs only a few routes in southern Michigan, all of them leading to Chicago. Noticeably missing is a route that connects Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit. The only form of mass transportation between these cities is the Greyhound Lines.

Plans to create a passenger rail service between Lansing and Detroit have been studied in the past by Capital Area Transportation Authority and other organizations, but nothing has ever materialized.

Mass transit in Michigan via train is bad enough, but some state legislators want to make it worse by cutting $1 million in funding from Amtrak. Rep. Shelley Taub, R-Bloomfield Hills, wants to shift this funding into busing for seniors and disabled people.

This is a bad move. It's sensible to increase the funding for busing, but it doesn't make sense to take the money from another useful type of public transportation. Considering that Michigan gave Amtrak $7.1 million last year, a cut of $1 million might be a fatal blow. The many advantages of rail transit would be lost.

Trains are a more environmentally sustainable form of transportation than automobiles and airlines. Less energy is used per passenger per mile by trains than any other major form of land transit except buses.

In Amtrak's northeastern corridor in New England, where Amtrak owns a high-speed track (unlike in Michigan), trains can attain speeds close to 150 miles per hour. In this area, Amtrak can effectively compete with airlines in cost and speed.

The legislators who proposed the Amtrak cut claim ridership numbers have been going down in the past 10 years. But if routes don't exist between major cities such as Lansing and Detroit, how can people ride the train in the first place?

It all boils down to a matter of perceived convenience and style. First of all, cars are perceived as stylish, whereas trains are not. Secondly, it is perceived that a train ride is less convenient than driving.

Given the proper funding, passenger rail travel doesn't have to be inconvenient or expensive. A one-way trip to Chicago from East Lansing only costs about $16 on most weekdays if bought in advance.

Instead of shunning rail transit, legislators should embrace it. Michigan needs to step into the modern world.