It is all rather easy to see how you violated the contest. Let me explain it all to you.

Plagiarized:

You used the word “rail” on your picture. You don’t own a railroad and
they do, thus you have plagiarized the word “rail” from them.

Lewd:

You bet this picture is lewd ! That mountain on the right side is
very reminiscent of a young female breast and the other breast is
seductively covered by the map of the United States. This is so erotic. How could you expect to sneak this kind of thing past them ?

Inappropriate:

Totally ! You train is going though Georgia isn’t it ? AH HA ! It is
taking the same path as General Sherman in the Civil War ! Don’t you
remember Sherman’s March to the Sea from high school history class ?
You have offended Southerners. And where is the map of Alaska huh ? I
bet they would be frosted not to see their state on your picture !

OK enough silliness on my part. ! Obviously, you don’t believe any of
the above and neither do I.

Your idea and picture were wonderful. The contest must be rigged to
not see the merit of your idea and picture.

Amtrack has put the CON in contest that’s all ! You have a right to be bitter !

Your intentions to help your grandmother are good. I commend you for them.

I hope this cheers you up a bit !

Take care,

Joe

Haha, that is pretty great. I had heard of the event, but the bottom part, talking about a student getting arrested for taking photos at every subway station sort of freaks me out.

Anyways, I’m sure Amtrak will love more people talking crap about them. Thinking about it though, maybe that is why they are so deathly afraid of people posting on blogs about them. I don’t really think it would be worth it for me to do anything further, it isn’t like they’re going to put my entry back in the contest. Though if their goal is censorship, I’d be happy to take down my post, provided they buy my grandmother a train ticket, hah.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/nyregion/28about.html

So if you can manage to get yourself arrested you’ll end up with more than enough money to take your grandmother to Florida.