Dukakis began his activism in the rail industry while a state legislator in the 1960s, as he opposed the popular belief that aiports and interstates would be sufficient means for transportation in the United States.

Dukakis translated his ideology into action as governor, spending $35 million to purchase old railroad lines that were then remodeled as the MBTA Commuter Rail.

Dukakis—who regularily commuted to the State House using the MBTA—was behind refurbishing and extending MBTA service during his tenure as governor, and has now turned to expanding rail on a national scale.

Dukakis, who is now a professor at Northeastern University and the University of California at Los Angeles, cited a gap in government transportation spending during his speech, saying that $45 billion in federal funds are spent on automobile and air travel, while a comparatively minute $331 million goes to Amtrak.

Dukakis said that Amtrak would only need 70 percent of travelers between Boston and New York and New York to Washington to choose the train for Amtrak to be operationally profitable.

Dukakis touched on another issue of local concern, the expansion of MBTA commuter rail service to Providence’s T.F. Green Airport.

Dukakis, a 1960 graduate of Harvard Law School, touched on security issues, as well, saying that Amtrak has stepped up police presence at its stations and utilized bomb-sniffing dogs.

“Security is a concern,” Dukakis said. “Half a million people go through Penn Station each day, which is more than [Los Angeles International Airport, O’Hare International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport] combined.”

The lunch with Dukakis was co-sponsored by the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Transportation Housing and Urban Development Professional Interest Council.