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Do you judge any other form of transit by its standalone profitability? Are you holding road construction and public airports to the same standard?
by IIAOPSW 4y ago
Do you judge any other form of transit by its standalone profitability? Are you holding road construction and public airports to the same standard?
- jcampbell1 4y agoI do. The federal government should be break even on roads through fuel taxes. Break even on airline ticket fees. At various times both have been true. Rail is horrendously subsidized to the tune of 20 cents per passenger mile. That is an insane subsidy.
- IIAOPSW 4y agoWell, I got bad news for you about the roads and fuel taxes.
- jcampbell1 4y agoFrom 1990-2005 fuel taxes generated a surplus in the US. In virtually every other developed country, vehicle and fuel taxes are vastly higher than spending on roads. Where is this bad news? I think fuel taxes should be higher in the US for many reasons. I think Europe should convert much of their passenger rail to freight for environmental reasons.
- rhaway84773 4y agoThe blog implicitly (and explicitly) makes the argument that this isn’t a form of transit. It’s recreation. 43 hours for what would be a 4 hr flight plus it’s more expensive to boot. So should such long distance train rides actually be compared to transit or golfing?
- IIAOPSW 4y agoI made the case a tiny bit further down thread. Yea its recreation, but its recreation at marginal cost to an existing system which helps to subsidize the non-recreational users. Like having a cruise ship appended to a container ship. Amtrak doesn't only exist for / cater to the land version of a cruise ship.