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High Speed Trains Killing Airplanes in Europe

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CogloadreturnsSeveral articles on Railpage Australia discuss the burgeoning ridership on the Melbourne commuter and tram lines.  None of them, however, expressed displeasure with privatization per se.The public transit system is strained for many of the same reasons that public transit systems in the U.S., as well as elsewhere, are strained.  The high cost of petrol has caused many people to give up driving and jump on the train or tram.  They have come in such numbers as to put a heavy strain on the system. The key question is whether a government operated system could handle the situation better than the private operators.  I don't see any evidence that they could.  Neither, apparently, does the Victoria Government.  The tram and commuter rail operating contracts expire in 2009.  Bids for new ones are being accepted.  According to The Age, more than 19 companies, some from overseas, want to wrestle the existing contracts from Connex and Yarra Trams.  Soliciting bids periodically helps keep the operators sharp and, if justified, replace them with operators who can do a better job.  Connex, Yarra Trams, and V Line have paid the state tens of millions of dollars for failure to meet performance standards.  This is another example of the virtues of privatization.  I am hard pressed to see a government body, e.g.  Amtrak, paying for failure to meet its punctuality and reliability standards.  It would be broke in six months.   I don't see any hard data that privatization is not working.  It has its challenges, just like the government run systems in many other countries.  In the U.S. the barriers to starting a rail line are high.  So too are the barriers for intercity passenger rail service, since the government granted Amtrak a virtual monopoly on intercity passenger rail, although there is a small window for some competition.  However, the barriers to starting bus, trucking, or airline operations are not unduly high.  Witness the numerous comings and goings over the past 25 years.  Amtrak has survived as a political entity because of indifference on the part of the body politic and the dedicated support of a small number of enthusiastic supporters.  Most intercity passenger trains were retained for political and sentimental reasons as opposed to meeting a market need.  Had the free market place been allowed to function, most passenger trains in the U.S. would have died in the 60s and 70s.  The NEC might have survived and served as a model for new corridors as changing conditions warranted.  Amtrak also survives because most voters, including many of their elected representatives, don't understand how it is financed.  Nor do they understand that since its inception Amtrak has drained the federal treasury of nearly $30 billion.
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