Signature Drive to Stop Amtrak Rail Service in Lakewood Underway

A new initiative called Stop Amtrak kicked off September 3.

Obtaining 5,500 signatures in the 100 days leading up to the Dec. 13 deadline  represents the only opportunity for the people of Lakewood to vote on this critical and controversial transportation project.

The petition found accompanying this article must be run though your printer twice to capture both the front and back sides of the petition on a single sheet of paper as is required.

Thirty volunteers willing to each gather 184 signatures over the next 100 days would accomplish the task.  If you are willing to assist with this campaign, respond to communitymattersweb@gmail.com indicating the area of Lakewood you are willing to canvas so as to avoid overlap and ensure adequate coverage of the city.  

Of course anyone able to gather any amount of signatures is welcome so long as all signers are registered Lakewood voters and all information hand-written legibly in ink.

There are a great number of reasons posted at www.CommunityMattersWeb.com as to why 12 high speed trains per day through the business districts and along the neighborhoods of our city is a bad idea. 

The only other initiative in Lakewood’s 15-year history was carried out by 20 volunteers gathering 4,000 signatures in 90 days, 44/day.  So with 100 days at 55 signatures/day, this is doable.   

But time is critical.   

In addition to the petition, accompanying this article is a Q&A on the Stop Amtrak initiative that provides the research, rationale and timeline leading up to a vote of the people on May 15, 2012.