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What I am trying to get accross is that before one can use equivolencies to compare various transportation services, we need to first come up with a way to compare right of access costs. We absolutely should not compare Amtrak with highways and airports, instead we should compare Amtrak with bus lines, airlines, cruiselines. We know that only Amtrak is a government sponsored passenger service. All the bus lines, airlines, and cruiselines are privately operated. Somehow, most of these private entities manage to make somewhat of a profit in their operations after they have paid out their user fees. Even if 10% to 15% of infrastructure funding comes from the U.S. general fund, not from user fees or state/local support, what is the comparison to the current rail passenger situation? Does Amtrak pay it's fully allocated costs for accessing the Class I rail grid, including costs of delays to freight trains? If so, is this money from the general fund or from ticket sales? Since ticket sales is the only comparison to a user fee, is there an equal comparitive scenario to highway and airport user fees? If we yanked Amtrak's direct subsidy, and instead only allow them to cover 10% to 15% of the break even costs out of the general fund, can Amtrak (or a private rail passenger entity) make it with 60% user fees and the rest state and local funding e.g. the closest parallel to current highway and airport funding? If it's true that automobiles and buses pay a disporportionately larger share of their allocated highway maintenance costs than trucks, for the sake of equivolency should we also make Amtrak pay a disporportionately larger share of it's track maintenance costs than the freight trains? The point is, if the playing field were truly level, with each operating company (bus, airline, passenger rail) regardless of transport mode paying the same percentages of cost allocations e.g. 60% user fees, 25% state and local support (outside of user fees), and 15% out of the General Fund, could rail passenger entities compete with airlines and bus lines? Remember, airlines have the advantage of raw speed, bus lines the advantage of ultimate route and station stop flexibility, while passenger rail is kind of in no man's land with neither the speed of air nor the flexibility of bus, thus is limited to the niche markets we've discussed elsewhere e.g. 300 to 500 mile corridors between large markets, long distance tourist type trains. From now on, we need to reframe the discussion away from the Amtrak vs Highways/Airports to Passenger Rail vs Bus Lines/Airlines (I know, wishful thinking given that politicians, pop media, and pro passenger rail enthusiasts are stuck in the "Amtrak vs HIghways" mentality.)
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