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The US has a great freight rail network. In the US a greater percentage of goods are carried on rail than in Europe. http://business.time.com/2012/07/09/us-fre

by sien 9y ago

The US has a great freight rail network. In the US a greater percentage of goods are carried on rail than in Europe. http://business.time.com/2012/07/09/us-freight-railroads/ http://business.time.com/2012/07/09/us-freight-railroads/ An alternative explanation as to why the US has poor long and medium distance passenger rail is that the subsidy required is not cost effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farebox_recovery_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farebox_recovery_ratio

protomyth 9y ago
Cargo is profitable and has a bit more flexibility in schedule (often loading at odd hours). Passenger isn’t profitable without a subsidy and requires service employees (on train and off) along with more expensive infrastructure as opposed to buildings owned by clients (e.g. grain elevators). Insurance is also more and B2B is always easier than B2C.
wbl 9y ago
And the subsidy for roads is?
StudentStuff 9y ago
The farebox recovery ratio for roadways is similarly terrible, gas tax is piss in the wind when it comes to building and maintaining road infrastructure. Up front though, our federal government will happily eat 90+% of the cost for new roadway projects, resulting in said projects seeing ample funding, and older localities ending up with massive infrastructure they can't afford to maintain, let alone replace at the end of its design life (eg: when its starting to approach failure).
- twoodfin 9y ago
  [G]as tax is piss in the wind when it comes to building and maintaining road infrastructure That’s an exaggeration. Federal and state gas taxes and user fees cover a large fraction (something like 50%) of maintenance and capital costs of highways and local roads, even though 1/6 of the Federal gas tax is redirected to mass transit. If it were politically viable, a 100% user tax/fee scheme could fund 100% of the system with gas prices not too much higher than they were a few years ago. The system would not collapse; EVs and hybrids would just become more popular. Air travel is similar. That is not true of passenger rail of any form in the US today, outside of perhaps the Boston-DC corridor.
crdoconnor 9y ago
In the US most tracks are owned by freight rail companies so they nearly always get priority over Amtrak. De-prioritizing passenger rail is going to result in shittier service, which will result in fewer passengers which will naturally result in a lower farebox recovery ratio. Are you arguing that because the passenger rail service is shitty and people aren't riding that the service should be kept shitty?

by sien 9y ago

protomyth 9y ago

Cargo is profitable and has a bit more flexibility in schedule (often loading at odd hours). Passenger isn’t profitable without a subsidy and requires service employees (on train and off) along with more expensive infrastructure as opposed to buildings owned by clients (e.g. grain elevators). Insurance is also more and B2B is always easier than B2C.

wbl 9y ago

And the subsidy for roads is?

StudentStuff 9y ago

The farebox recovery ratio for roadways is similarly terrible, gas tax is piss in the wind when it comes to building and maintaining road infrastructure. Up front though, our federal government will happily eat 90+% of the cost for new roadway projects, resulting in said projects seeing ample funding, and older localities ending up with massive infrastructure they can't afford to maintain, let alone replace at the end of its design life (eg: when its starting to approach failure).

twoodfin 9y ago
[G]as tax is piss in the wind when it comes to building and maintaining road infrastructure That’s an exaggeration. Federal and state gas taxes and user fees cover a large fraction (something like 50%) of maintenance and capital costs of highways and local roads, even though 1/6 of the Federal gas tax is redirected to mass transit. If it were politically viable, a 100% user tax/fee scheme could fund 100% of the system with gas prices not too much higher than they were a few years ago. The system would not collapse; EVs and hybrids would just become more popular. Air travel is similar. That is not true of passenger rail of any form in the US today, outside of perhaps the Boston-DC corridor.

crdoconnor 9y ago

In the US most tracks are owned by freight rail companies so they nearly always get priority over Amtrak. De-prioritizing passenger rail is going to result in shittier service, which will result in fewer passengers which will naturally result in a lower farebox recovery ratio. Are you arguing that because the passenger rail service is shitty and people aren't riding that the service should be kept shitty?