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Passenger trains, how would you do it?
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One thing people seem to have forgotten is that we're forgetting what happens to a new automobile . . . it is usually hauled by train! All of this is very intricately tied together. <br /> <br />What about taxing shipments of new automobiles at, say, 10% of the total shipping cost for any rail-truck connection, but tax trucks at 11% for any direct dock-to-dealership or factory-to-dealership connection, to prevent cheating. <br /> <br />Award the freight railroads subsidies to passenger trains at 1% over freight costs of intermodal for the same distances, on the same ROW routes, for on-time passenger train performance (performance being specified by the average market needs of intermodal shippers). <br /> <br />An additional variable percentage rate would be figured into the rail subsidies based on total intermodal volumes + total passenger rail mileage on each freight railroad. Instruct the RRs to place the total subsidy directly toward infrastructure costs of tracks which run the heaviest tonnage. <br /> <br />Typically, this would be spent on mainlines with lots of bulk commodities, thus leading the RRs to separate their slower, heavier trains from their high-priority traffic. It would also encourage outgrowth of boxcar freight, since this can be heavier than intermodal and has slower loading times befitting its use on a slower secondary area. As these areas improve, transloading facilities will allow these "boxcar" secondaries to be designated intermodal, and therefore increase the total volume subsidy. <br /> <br />Also decrease truck fuel taxes for those trucks shipping intermodal over minimum distances where RRs break even when competitive with long-haul trucks to the same destinations. As more trucks ship by rail, costs will rise for the RRs because of operational constraints, leading either to capacity increases or fewer truck business. <br /> <br />At the same time, decrease landing fees by 1% of ticket cost at commercial airports for those airports with air-to-rail commuter connections linked to the national rail-freight system. Typically, commuter and regional rail will already have these links. <br /> <br />Once the funding has been figured out, the rest will follow.
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