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Ho, ho, ho ... Let's see, where should I begin ... Yes, trucks do a lot of damage to the roads and that cost is not proportional to the taxes and fees charged to the truck operators. Yes, when you pay for gas for your recreational vehicles and your lawn mower you are putting in a little more than those who do not. (You got a boat AND a snowmobile? Cool!) Yes, I get mail. Mostly bills, but I know some who are not online yet. It was posted on this site a while back that the government had diverted mail shipments to the airlines from the railroads to help them out. Was this inaccurate? Amtrak hauls a significant (or even incidental?) amount of fruit and mail? I wasn't aware of that. What are they transporting in those Tropicana cars that go through my town each week, Chess sets? Now, while the truck operators don't pay the share of damage they cause, it is a wash. If the taxes were restructured so the truckers did pay the correct share then the costs would be passed along to us at the retail level. Oh! and then we would get to pay state sales tax on the trucker's share. Great idea! Seriously, in the end we all benifit from the truckers access to the highway system and I don't think a better system is likely to be adopted by anyone. Back to your boat, do they charge gas taxes when you buy gas at the dock? I would be in favor of eliminating that, although I worry that some would abuse that loophole in the gas tax and find a way to fill up their cars. Unfortunately, I doubt either of us could get a congressman to listen to our request to reduce taxes on this one. Sorry, that's the best I can do for you there. Back to Amtrak hauling mail and fruit, is it a significant amount of either? I must admit that I hear a lot of different stories on mail. One fellow tells me it is on the planes. Another article talks about the number of U.S. Mail trailers seen on TOFC trains. Of course, I see plenty of trucks carrying it about town. My guess is that the volume of mail carried by Amtrak is incidental to the total but I could be completely wrong about that. Before I get to my main point though, unless you or one of your buddies can overcome gravity, which I am in favor of if you can, I'm not too concerned about the government drastically reducing its funding for highways. I am a structural engineer. Bridges for highways or railroads, I don't care. Buildings, whatever, I'm just not worried. And if you think I have the power on this forum to influence natioinal transportation policy, you flatter me beyond my wildest dream. Now to the important point. As an engineer I respect the efficiency of our rail network. I would like to see as much freight travel by rail as practical and I think the best measure of what is practical is our free market system. Our transportation network is an essential component of our free market system because without the ability of my supermarket to choose between oranges from Florida or California there is no free market system. I hope we agree that the free market is good for all of us and that the transportation network is important for that reason. I know the government funds highways and airports. While I don't know the numbers, I suspect the government's support of airports is higher than I would like but there is little I can do about that. I would like the users to pay the costs of the airport. As I said before, because of the open access of the highway network I can't think of a better way to finance the construction of the nations highways. I can think of a bunch of ways to make our highway dollars go further but the majority of the highway industry isn't interested in listening to the engineers who design the system. You may just have to trust me on that one. The reason I don't think the government should be involved in passenger rail transportation is because they upset the balance of the free market. Every freight railroader I have spoken to has told me they would rather the Amtrak trains were not operated on their line. Are there any on this forum who like Amtrak trains operating on their tracks? I'm honestly curious. Those I have talked to tell me of long waits on remote sidings waiting for an Amtrak train to pass and they don't care for it. I have been told that there are special clearance (time) requirements for Amtrak trains which upset the flow of freight. As I am not a train operator (engineer) I have taken these men at their word. If Amtrak were as universally accessable as the road network, then I would not have a problem with it being universally funded. However, it is my perception that Amtrak service is concentrated in the northeast and between some of the largest cities. Amtrak doesn't provide any commuter service in my town. I wouldn't want Amtrak to have to because it would only serve the needs of a few and we would all have to pay for their convenience. It is immoral to expect others to pay for something which benefits you. I would like to see passenger rail thrive again in this country. I have two proposals for those who think it would be good in your community. First, contact your congressmen and ask them to divert some of your highway funds to support the passenger rail system in your area. If you think the money would be better spent on rail transportation in your community, I have no problem with that. My second proposal would be to privatize passenger rail operations and let the users pay for the system they use. This could be done by having the existing railroads run passenger service if they choose or finding an entrepreneur who wanted to take a substantial risk and build a new passenger rail network. I imagine the first alternative would be more likely to occur. Finally, I think the federal government should eliminate many taxes which the railroads pay in order to make the playing field more level. I know that some of this probably comes across a bit harsh, but your willingness to state that I am 'wrong' when we simply don't agree sort of hit a hot button. The post is much too long for me to fix right now so I hope you will simply indulge my weakness. I would like to discuss this further if you like. I just honestly think the government's involvement in pasenger rail would only insure that it is less efficient and I don't want that. Regards - Ed
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