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[quote]QUOTE: I think the subsidies are really the problem to begin with. If nothing were subsidized, people would travel on the means that are most efficient and an industry would find a way to make money meeting the demads of such travel. As of right now, the subsidies mask such efficiency determinations, and allow people--to borrow a phrase--to export their transportation costs to other entities. [/quote] That is right on conceptually, but unfortunately it's way too late to undo the damge done by years of government interference (read subsidies) with what used to be a lot closer to free market transportation. Like it or not, nobody is going to un-build the highways or airports and air traffic control system, so for rail passenger service to play in today's reality (which is anything BUT an efficient or free market), it must be government subsidized. The whole idea that passenger trains competing with government subsidized automobiles and airplanes is every bit as ludicrous as the idea that the airline industry EVER turned an actual "profit" (ignoring for a moment all the years the airlines can't even turn their make believe "profits," without their extensive government subsidies, they couldn't exist much less turn a REAL profit). I've expressed this sentiment many times before - put "Amtrak" (or invent some silly new name if you're so inclined) on the SAME BASIS as the airline industry - that is, acquire land for and build a nationwide high speed rail network connecting all the cities currently connected by the interstate highways, build and operate dispatching facilities for the network, and then charge the operator(s) of the passenger trains on the network (i.e., "Amtrak") a "user fee" - that of course does not come close to covering the sunk costs, fixed costs and maintenance of the system, and since the system is "public" there will of course be no property taxes to worry about (for the train operator(s), i.e., "Amtrak.") THEN, I submit to you that not only would "Amtrak" be "profitable" (in the manner of speaking applied to the airlines), but it would post profits a hell of a lot more consistently than any airline EVER has.
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