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Ed: I LOVE passenger trains. I also love steam. Am I crazy enough to think that the latter will come back? No. Or the passenger train? well... I might be that crazy. The answer for the staffing issue on Amtrak is to eliminate staff. How many stewardesses (or whatever they are called now) per 747? 6? And how many passengers? 400? As for maintenance, you got me there. No doubt passenger cars DO cost more to maintain.... and probably to build, too, with upholstery and carpet and whatnot. Track, ballast, etc.... well these are in the realm, mostly, of private railroads. If you include them in the cost of your rail ticket, well... then no one will ride. But guess what? Almost every dime of airport construction, of flight control, are comming out of your pocket, and mine. Airlines pay for "slots" to get in and out of an airport, and these are supposed to pay back for construction. But you can bet they don' come near the costs. Instead, the costs come largely from Federal Income Tax funneled through congressional appropriations, and through Municiple Bonds, which are paid for with property taxes. Heck, let's not even count the 15 billion they got as part of a bailout for September 11th! If you had to pay for the airport in your ticket, well, no one would fly either. And driving? If you had to pay for your interstate when you started your car..... well, you get the drift. I really don't like airlines getting their terminals built on our dime, cause invariably terminals which are too large and too grandiouse are built... pork, anyone? But I have no problem, *in general*, with funding infrastructure improvments. Or even with garanteeing loans for cars & locos. But I don't think that we ought to finance the staff and food and fuel of a passenger train. Operations should be paid for by the users, just like drivers pay for their own cars, gas, and tires. And airlines pay for their own fuel, airplanes, pilots, etc.... Rail is fantastic... but it definitely is not priceless. Only life is. Alexander
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