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<p>[quote user="henry6"]</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <strong>joe323:</strong></div> <div> <p> </p> <p>The thing tat I do not get (and I suppose thats because I travel little) is why anyone would pay the premium to ride Acela, when a regular NEC is only about 20 minutes more.  I resarched this last year for a business trip I made from NYC to washington last year.</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>First, Sam!  Airlines are subsidized by government money for research for military purposes which transposes to commercial airplanes; by municipal building and owning airports; by air traffic controllers just for starters.</p> <p>But Joe, the point is that people with money will pay money for the service.  Plus people want choices of service levels, comfort and time and amenities.  As an aside, in my Ride With Me Henry trips, we have ridden Amtrak NYP to Poughkeepsie, NY returning by MNRR and to Stamford, CT returning by MNRR.  In both cases, as I remember, the one way Amtrak tickets was equal to the round trip fare on MNRR.   But the speed and the comfort of the ride was sooooooo different!  The comfort of the seats, the suspension of the car, the lighting, etc. [/quote]</p> <p>The last airplane that benefited directly from military research and experience was the Boeing 707, which is a carbon copy, in many respects, of the KC-135.  </p> <p>You could stretch this claim further, as NARP has done, that the airlines have benefited from NASA research.  This is true.  It is equally true that the railroads have also benefited from the same or similar research, e.g. micro-processors, GPS, etc.</p> <p>Many folks on these forums are quick to point to supposed subsidies received by the airlines, but seem to over look the large subsidy received by passenger rail (higher per passenger mile than any competing mode of transport) or forget that most of the railroads in the U.S. got their start with significant government support.</p> <p>The amount of so-called subsidies received by competing modes of transport is irrelevant.  The key question is where is passenger rail a viable option, at what level, and how much should the country invest in it?  Obviously, this is a legitimate question.  And it is part of the national debate that will be on-going for years, I suspect. </p>
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