this has given us a unique and unpair lelled experience in the operation of service above 100 miles anhour under north american conditions. i recently returned from an extensive tour of our western operations. in fact, 9,000 miles worth of riding the train and amtrak prepared food. they were good but i would have liked more variety. i can assure you that the mood of our employees and our supporters is optimistic. people are excited about the future of amtrak and inner city passenger rail and there's a real sense that we have a historic opportunity ahead of us. the passenger rail and investment improvement act or prixa establishes a new relationship between the government, states and the railroad. this committee played a privityal role in enactment of this legislation. this is my first appearance before this committee as president of amtrak. so on behalf of the company and all of its supporters i'd like to thank the committee and in particular senator lautenberg and senator hutchinson for your bipartisanship. the states are the strategic planners. they decide which markets should be ser