QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd Well, if you provide the right kind and amount of hidden subsidy, a "private" operator could make money. Let's say the private operator only had to pay for equipment maintenance and on-board personnel and pay a small ticket tax that would go toward a small fraction of everything else (capital expenses, ROW ownership and maint., dispatching, policing, stations, ticket sales, etc.). Maybe, you would find a bidder. ....and maybe not. I think you are on the right track here, no pun intended. If the right "operators" came along, Halliburton Express anyone, the government couldn't give them money fast enough. It wouldn't be a hidden subsidy either. All of a sudden, passenger rail would be a major national asset and any money would be an investment. Not that service would really improve. Jeff
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
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Jock Ellis Cumming, GA US of A Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers
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