It's stricly 'who pays' for what? Follow the money.
RR's get their $$ from people shipping freight. Employees get their paychecks from the RR's.
AMTRAK contracts for passenger hauling at bargain rates. AMTRAK is subsidized by the government. Passengers don't really pay their way.
AIRLINE TRAVEL is subsidized by the government. Passengers don't really don't pay their way.
When passengers pay their way their voices will count. Roads & hiways are paid for by the government. When gasolene taxes or tolls get high enough to pay for them (new & repair), we then may obtain a level playing field.
Meanwhile we have Railroads, Oil, the Automotive Industry (nation's biggest employer), Airlines, and their Unions, all clamoring for 'bail out'.
GOOD NEWS: Heavily subsidized 'Airbus' (Germany - France) is in deep trouble if they aren't heavily re-financed. What's next? Detroit or gasolene substitutes @$7.per gallon? (Norway gasolene prices).
Would breaking Arab oil monopolies be in our National interest? No comments please (off topic). Just think about it.
BERGIE: If you want to delete PART of this, I trust your judgement.
I thought the reason that the railroads joined Amtrak was because the ICC would not let them terminate passenger service and this was the only way they could get out of it.
Enjoy
Paul
Amtrack is late anyways. Not worth the hassle.
First train out gets the mainline early in the Morning I say.
We have lost the passenger service that we once enjoyed nationwide up until World War Two. We will never get it back because everyone has several autos or trucks.
That 7 dollar gas, I can deal with... for a time anyway.