Once again being new to this forum, I would like to ask a question that may have already been discussed. do railroads pay the same taxes on diesel fuel as the trucking industry? I know that most rail enthusiasts probably find it remarkable that the freight railroads survive without any government aid. The ,unlike airline and trucking build and maintain their own infrastructure. but like every other industry the government tries to tell it how to run itself.if the government would spend more time governing and less time regulating businesses maybe even Amtrak would do better.
Off road users of diesel such as RRs and farms don't pay the highway fuel tax. The fuel with the tax paid is dyed blue. Fuel w/o the tax is natural amber in color.
For a while in the 90s, there was a "deficit reduction" tax on fuel that all paid. After a bit, the highway users portion was funneled into the highway trust fund, but the RR's kept paying into the general fund. That was repealed somewhere around 2000.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
The railroads receive all kinds of government aid and incentives... just as do the other modes of transport.
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