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There are many types of critics.  This critic is concerned about wasting money on a train that serves very few people, provides limited social value, which should be a criterion for public funding, and drains away resources that could be better used for enhancing existing rapid rail corridors or developing new ones.  If the Sunset Limited ran on time every day, I would still favor discontinuing it.  Better use could be made with the monies saved.  It's a matter of being accountable for the public spend, which is the people's money.  It is bad policy to throw good money after bad.  Long distance passenger trains in the U.S. serve less than one per cent of the traveling public.  Most people walked away from them decades ago.  Not of one of them covers its avoidable costs, let alone interest and depreciation.  As the following debt information shows, there is a limit as to how much we the people, who are the government, can spend.  It begs the need to set our public priorities to benefit the greatest number of people.  Clearly, most of the people don't show a high value for the long distance passenger train through their use. The national debt stands at $9.1 trillion. The U.S. Government owes more than $33,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States, which is more than the nation's income per person in 2006. The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that the national debt will touch 10 trillion dollars by 2009 and 12.9 trillion by 2017.According to the Comptroller of the Currency, in 2006 mandatory spending, i.e. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military and government pensions, etc. took 53 per cent of the national budget.  This is a 103 per cent increase over the 1966 mandatory spend.  After considering the mandatory spending and interest obligations, only 38 per cent of the budget remains for discretionary spending.U.S. consumer debt at the end of October 2007 was approximately $2.496 trillion dollars or nearly $22,450 per household.  On top of this most households are saddled with a mortgage.  And if this is not enough debt to cause the lenders to salivate, local and state debt that has to be serviced.  With the retirement of millions of baby boomers over the next decade and beyond, the U.S. is facing a daunting financial challenge.  The Government Accounting Office estimates that the public financial burden will soar to $440,000 per household as the Medicare and Social Security tabs come due.  They, as well as defense and homeland security requirements, will make government finance a difficult task.  What's worse, these numbers don't include state and local government debt.  Some hard choices are ahead.  Cutting the funding for the Sunset, as well as all long distance passenger trains, will not cure the government's financial woes or reduce significant personal debt.  But it could be a start.  And although it would hurt a few passenger train lovers, of which I count myself, it would affect very few people.  Yes, the Sunset, as well as its sister long distance trains, is hopeless.  But I could be wrong.  The best way to determine the value of long distance trains is to require them to cover their variable costs, including interest and depreciation, which are really variable costs in the long run.
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