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The government should build its own line. Its no joke to delay a cargo shipment, there are tons of penalties built into those contracts. As a railroad, you ha
by protomyth 4y ago
The government should build its own line. Its no joke to delay a cargo shipment, there are tons of penalties built into those contracts. As a railroad, you have a very specific timing on when your train needs to arrive, and the people doing the loading need to have it loaded in a set time period. Frankly, given diesel prices, cargo is much more important than people at this point.
Perhaps the government will be looking to add some tracks or dedicated bus lines the next time it funds a highway project. This demonizing of cargo when its absolutely needed in the US is just stupid.
- rhino369 4y agoEspecially since Amtrak (aside from the NE regional line) doesn't provide any service that Greyhound or Megabus don't already provide.
- bombcar 4y agoAmtrak has an extensive bus line to extend their reach - and they can't sell you a ticket on it unless it includes a train segment.
- rhino369 4y agoWe don't need a subsidized government run bus line, the private ones work fine.
- bombcar 4y agoTo be fair, all bus lines are government subsidized, unless one somewhere has built their own roads - maybe the Disney shuttle?
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoIn theory fuel taxes and registration taxes on the buses should cover their share of that cost but the math becomes tricky when you start trying to calculate the time and space value of different road segments.
- monsieurbanana 4y agoHow many businesses are not government subsidised, if we follow your logic?
- kingkawn 4y agoBroad ideologically motivated dismissals of entire avenues of problem solving seem suspect at best
- rhino369 4y agoI would characterize the Amtrak support as ideologically motivated solutions in search of a problem. Other than the NE lines, Amtrak is a pet project.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kube-system 4y agoI thought this until I tried to book a ticket recently and found that megabus had cancelled the route I wanted to use entirely.
- ghaff 4y agoJust because a private bus company canceled a route doesn't mean that the government would (or perhaps should) operate routes that don't meet some metric of popularity.
- kube-system 4y agoIt is very common for governments to operate or subsidize unprofitable public transport routes in the name of accessibility.
- ghaff 4y agoYes, but they invariably draw the line somewhere.
- katbyte 4y agoexcept they clearly don't? especially in places that need to be connected but will never be profitable. UK tried it with rail and it didn't go so well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlTq8DbRs4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlTq8DbRs4k
- zeckalpha 4y agoThey are often subcontracted to the private companies.
- leetcrew 4y agogreyhound doesn't provide any service that your own two legs don't provide. it is quite a bit faster though.
- freemint 4y agoThe elderly and disabled disagree.
- tshaddox 4y ago> Its no joke to delay a cargo shipment, there are tons of penalties built into those contracts. It’s hard to imagine many examples of rail freight that is justifiably more time-sensitive than passenger rail. Surely very time-sensitive freight shipments already go on trucks or planes, for obvious reasons.
- protomyth 4y agoWell, no. Multiple plants around this country process crops for multiple end-products. These plants are fed by the railroads and need to keep running. Delaying a passenger doesn't shut down the airport, but it could shutdown a plant. There are large classes of freight that are not shipped by planes and trucks are a feeder for rail in those situations.
- tshaddox 4y agoOf course a huge amount of agricultural freight transportation goes by freight train. The question is whether these train deliveries are highly sensitive to small delays (relative to the time the train journey normally takes). Is it a major problem for these agricultural plants if, say, a particular freight train that normally takes 48 hours to complete its journey instead takes 60 hours due to delays?
- protomyth 4y agoThe addition of 12 hours to a freight contract can cause a processing plant to require a shutdown. There is a reason for the penalties in those contracts. Worse, the people who show up to load a train and have a small window are now waiting for the train and stuck in a holding pattern. Disrupting the freight system when passengers in the US have multiple other ways to get from A to B is problematic. The whole idea that moving people from A to B is more important than moving cargo from A to B doesn't take into account the jobs and time required to maintain our complex economy. Delays will increase the price of basic goods which has a big effect on the rest of the economy. Look at what happens when energy is more costly then add other basic product building blocks to that rising price beyond just fuel. That person buying groceries is more important than passengers riding a train.