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[quote user="blue streak 1"]   <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> Sam1:</div> <div>   Whether truckers pay their fair share of the roadway system has been debated and will continue to be debated for year.  . For example, truckers pay hefty fuel taxes, which contribute a disproportionate percentage of revenues to the highway trust fund For comparative purposes, the median return on sales for the Fortune 500 (America's freight railroads are Fortune 500 companies) was approximately 5% and the median return on equity was 14.3%, which was significanty above the historical return of 12%.  As these numbers show, at least from a financial perspective, America's freight railroads are performing substantially above the financial medians for America's largest corporations. <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </div> </blockquote>   sam1;  To say that trucks are paying their fair share of the roadway system is incorrect.  as our poster mudchicken has cited trucks wear out the interstate system not cars. to cite a few examples Ga DOT just finished repaving I-85 from about  mile post 36 to mile post 57. It took 2-1/2 years to complete on an in service road.  The outer lanes of concrete were pot holed and rough ( main lane of heavier trucks ).  8" concrete was replaced with 12 - 14 " 8000# concrete.  Now I-85 ( 2 lanes each way ) from mile post 0 to mile post 36 is slated for replacement in a couple years with the right lanes cracked and pot holed. Henry6 can cite several NY parkways built in the 1960s around NYC thah have always banned trucks and have never had to be even repaved. Maybe RRs do have a better ROI now but look at all the lean years that they did not have such ?? /quote] Most transport experts understand that heavy trucks do more damage to the highways per vehicle mile traveled than light trucks and cars.  Studies from the Texas Transportation Institute show this to be true. I did not agree or disagree with their findings. I alluded to the fact that the question of whether they are paying their fair share is being debated and probably will continue to be debated or words to that effect.  Heavy truck operators pay considerably more in vehicle taxes and user fees (primarily diesel) than light truck and car owners. In addition, the overwhelming majority of heavy trucks is operated by for profit common carriers (J.B. Hunt, Roadway, etc.) or private carriers (Ashley Furniture, Walmart, Frito-Lay, etc.) Most of these firms pay federal, state, and local income taxes, inventory and property taxes, etc. A portion of these taxes flow to highway development and maintenance.  Accordingly, the key question is whether the incremental taxes and fees paid by heavy truck operators, as well as their corporate taxes, cover the incremental maintenance costs caused by their trucks.  If Henry can point to verifiable data that the Taconic Parkway in New York, as well as the Merit Parkway in Connecticut, as examples, have never been resurfaced, I'll believe it, although it has nothing to do with determining whether truckers pay the incremental cost of maintaining the highways that they use. Otherwise, having driven these parkways, both of which appear to have been resurfaced at least once, I will remain a skeptic. By comparison, you can look up the data that I presented regarding the financial performance of the nation's freight railroads.  The annual reports of the reporting railroads is a good place to start, except in the case of the BNSF the data has to be dug out of Berkshire Hathaway's financial data. As the figures shown in my previous post show, the nation's freight railroads are outperforming their Fortune 500 counterparts. And not just by a little bit. Prior to the regulatory reforms implement by the Stagger's Act, the returns was less than what they could have gotten from a passbook savings account. That was then.  This is now.  I come back to what I have said and will continue repeat. Whether the railroads were treated unfairly in comparison to alternative modes of transport or are being treated fairly is irrelevant. We ain't going back! Americans are not going to give up the technological, commercial, and convenience advantages delivered by cars, planes, and trucks. It just is not going to happen.  Which leaves us with this question:  what is the role for passenger rail in the nation's bag of transport options?
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