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Responses to several points raised by people in this thread in no particular order: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> If HSR could pay for itself, it would not need a public subsidy.  HSR boosters always say that a public subsidy for HSR is deserved because roads and airlines are subsidized.  But that is a red herring.  The way to decide whether something is worth subsidizing is by comparing how much use it gets by the people who pay for it compared to other alternatives.  Roads get a lot of general use by most of the people who help pay for them.  HSR users will be relatively few compared to the number of people who will pay for it. <o:p></o:p> When I mentioned getting people out of their cars and onto rail by raising the taxes on gasoline and adding tolls to all roads, this will actually be accomplished solely by new tolls because fuel taxes will be rolled into the tolls.  There will be no actual tax on motor fuel.   <o:p></o:p> The new comprehensive road tolls will not be a one-size-fits-all billing rate.  On the contrary, it will be constantly adjusted by the Central Bureau of Tolling.  They will control traffic though the manipulation of tolls.  They will be able to ration the roadway according to user demand by raising or lowering the toll.  They will impose fuel conservation pricing by raising the toll the farther you drive.  They will factor the fuel economy of your vehicle.  With driver income information, they will be able to charge according to the ability of users to pay.  If excess rail capacity exits in a particular corridor, they will be able to squeeze the nearest roads and get people into the trains.  Remember: driving isn’t a right, it’s a privilege.    Of course, while this brave new world of motoring may initially get people out of their cars and onto rail, it is likely to ultimately supplant rail travel and make it obsolete.  Twenty years from now, we will look back with nostalgia to the days when we innocently thought rail was the answer to a national transportation system.
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