Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="oltmannd"]   <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> Sam1:</div> <div>   My entire working life was spent in businesses that had to cover all of their costs or go out of business.  It is hard for me to understand how one can claim a money losing service, including those that have an operating profit but don't cover their capital costs, as a success.  <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </div> </blockquote>   Because they can possibly provide benefits outside of the cash flow that provide for an overall benefit/cost ratio >1.  Air quality, health, traffic congestion alleviation, CO2 reduction, reduction in dependence on imported oil, avoided public capital expenditure on highways (over and above that supported by increase fuel tax receipts), airports, et. al. Would you call the NY City subway system a failure?  It is a collection of failed private enterprises. [/quote] Part of the reason that the NY City subways system, as well as transit in other cities, failed as private enterprises is because the regulators would not allow them, for political as well as other reasons, to charge fares sufficient to cover their costs.  So the burden of doing so was shifted from the user to the taxpayer.     Local transit, i.e. light rail, commuter rail, buses, para-transport, etc., which is akin to a public utility, is different than Amtrak.  Local transit is a societal necessity, and the taxpayers have to support it, although there are better ways to do so than the current model.     Amtrak, on the other hand, provides intercity passenger transport services that are a nicety.  They don't look like, walk like or talk like a public utility.  Amtrak does not cover its costs.  It does not even come close.  Should it?   Yep!   With some restructuring of the nation's transport cost model, i.e. elimination of most subsidies and true interface pricing, it probably could in the NEC, at least.  Perhaps elsewhere as well.  But if its revenues cannot cover its costs, it should disappear.   Given Amtrak cannot cover the cost of its services via the fare box, it is a challenge to describe any of its services as a successful, at least from an economic perspective.  This is and was my only point with respect to success.  I realize that success can be defined from several perspectives.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag