Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="JPS1"]Many of the high speed rails system, based on my read of their financial reports, were built with taxpayer monies.  Unlike funding for U.S. airports, the taxpayers probably did not recover the initial monies that they had sunk into high speed rail infrastructure. [/quote] You are right, the building of the rail infrastructure is tax financed as is building of airports and building and maintenance of our (German) road system. There is no payback. I find it fair that rail infrastructure is build using taxes as all are handled almost equal. That was what I meant above.   As the rail infrastructure is government owned it can be used by about 150 railroad companies competing with DB. They all pay for the track use by ton-miles. This money is used for maintenance. It is very different here. Our constitution defines Germany as a social state. Therefore public transportation is deemed as general interest. The fares have to be considered in a way that even poor people can fully participate in daily life. These fare limits often make subsidizing with taxes necessary. Regards, Volker
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