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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by kenneo</i> <br /> <br />If a profit could be made operating passenger rail, Amtrak would be making it, and the freight railroads would be beating up on the Feds to get passenger rail back <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />I would like to expand on this point. I would disagree with the sentiment that if it were possible to make a profit running passengers, Amtrak would be making it. Government agencies are not constructed to be lean and mean, they are constructed to take as much taxpayer money as possible to do as little work as possible. I should know, until recently I worked for one, and in my situation it became apparent quite early in the process that what we were doing could be done much better by a private contractor, and for a lot less cost to the clients. <br /> <br />Therefore, if there is a way for passenger rail to be profitable (and it is not axiomatic that it can't), Amtrak would be the last entity you'd want to prove the hypothesis. <br /> <br />Secondly, if it were possible to make money with passengers, that doesn't automatically mean that the freight railroads would suddenly want a piece of the action. We're talking about an industry that is geared to average train speeds of 25 mph, carrying the highest possible tonnage per slot, and is currently turning away business from UPS for crying out loud! It isn't a question of if money can be made with passengers, it's a question of how big the profit margins carrying passengers would be in determining what the freight railroads would do. The Class I's today are not going to go after new business unless they can recover 200+% in revenue adequacy.
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