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Public Transit Ridership in the United States

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[quote user="John WR"] [quote user="Sam1"] In a country where 20.7 per cent of the children don't have health insurance and in many instances lack an adequate diet, i.e. they don't get enough to eat, subsidizing wealthy commuters, as well as first class travelers on  Amtrak, strikes me as obscene. [/quote] I've never considered that when I get on board a commuter train I am committing an "obscene" act.  While we do have people without adequate food, housing and medical care I don't see that their problems would be reduced were I to drive my car instead of boarding that train.  But you see my train ride as "obscene."   The notion that if those of us who ride trains were forced to drive our cars instead then the problems of the poor would be reduced strikes me as a bit of a stretch.   [/quote] If the people who ride on Amtrak, as well as those affluent riders on the nation's commuter rail system paid the full cost of their transportation, the nation would have additional resources to help the poor. In the case of Amtrak it would be more than $1.5 billion per year. I don't know how much it would be in the case of commuter rail, but it would be substantial.  Amtrak's accumulated loses, all of which have been covered by the taxpayers, is more than $28 billion. That would buy a lot of school lunches.   On an earlier posting I noted that Chicago' Metra has received 85 per cent of its capital costs from the federal and state governments.  That too would buy a lot of school lunches. I am not talking about you or other commuter rail passengers driving.  I am talking about people who can afford the note to tote it.  Based on my experience in and around New York City, as well as several other major metropolitan areas, a significant percentage of the commuter rail passengers could afford to pay all of the cost of the commute.  They should do so. And that would free up money for more worthwhile activities. Like helping poor people get enough to eat.
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