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Electrification. Good for freight RR`s ??

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[quote user="gabe"] As to the topic of passenger rail service's relation to public funding: I am probably going to get several sighs, a few groubles, and maybe something e-thrown at me for this thesis.  But, to the extent the CURRENT U.S. passenger rail system has any effect on the public funding of railroads, I suspect it is very negative rather than positive. I am sure most of you share my experience when people who know nothing about railroads scoff at the allegedly dilapadated condition of the U.S. rail system.  When I ask these pedogoths what supports their opinion, I always get an answer of something to the effect of, "have you riden Amtrak lately?" Granted, I live in a more libertarian-disposed section of the country, but most people I come into contact with view the efficiencies of Amtrak like they view the efficiencies of the post office and the BMV--at best they regard it as a necessary evil whose chief antribute is to employ people who are otherwise unemployable (n.b., this is not necessarily my view--I am a transplant to Indiana . . .). My preceived public categorical error of thinking our rail system "is" Amtrak combine with what I believe to be the near universal public belief that Amtrak is a sort of wooden-spoke operation, makes me suspect that any relation between the public's perception of passenger service and the desireability of funding railroads from the common fund would lead Joe voter to conclude that putting money in the rail system is throwing good money after bad. Gabe [/quote] I agree with your points. But that pesky Joe Voter has basically been circumvented lately by the invention of crises that demand immediate socialization in the form of financial bailouts.  Government, on an institutional level, has found a way to expand without the consent of the political process.  We have entered a brave new world that is soon likely to get slapped upside the head by the laws of economics.
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