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[quote user="Paul Milenkovic"] [quote]The real test will come when Amtrak has to replace the long distance train equipment.  Based on a recent trip on the CZ, they may be getting close to that point.  Between Denver and California all the toilets in the rear coach failed, along with half the toilets in the sleepers. [/quote] Failing toilets means Amtrak needs replacements for the Superliner cars? There comes a time when repairs are no longer warranted and one has to just plain buy new.  The point where you have to replace transportation equipment is generally when corrosion has gotten the best of it and the structural members along with everything else is starting to rot out. But if a toilet fails you have to replace the whole thing?  If a toilet fails in my house I don't call a realtor or a new house builder.  I call a plumber.  Or actually, my wife sends me to Home Depot where I come back with a replacement toilet and a sheet of instructions. [quote] After the next go around of the federal government's economic stimulus package, the national debt will be approximately 100 per cent of the GDP.  Add in the unfunded liabilities, e.g. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military pensions, etc., and we are talking serious debt.  Finding the money to buy new equipment for the long distance trains, which are used by less than 1 per cent of the traveling public, will be a challenge.[/quote] I used to think you were wrong, that if there was enough public demand for something, a way would be found to "charge it" and go ahead.  But a trillion dollars doesn't go as far as it used to.  A trillion dollars of "stimulus and investment in infrastructure" leaves a paltry billion dollars for Amtrak to spend on track upgrades and other infrastructure-y things. [/quote]   Failing toilets, as well as dinning cars, are not indicative of a need to replace the equipment.  However, they could be a telltale symptom.  As equipment gets older, it costs more to maintain it.  A real business replaces the equipment when the cost of maintaining it, together with the cost of misaligned mission design (opportunity cost), exceeds the amortizable cost of replacing it. The CZ lost 21.6 cents a passenger mile in FY 2008 before interest and depreciation.  It had an average load factor of 51 per cent.  My train was packed from Denver to Winter Park.  After that it was nearly empty until Reno, where the weekend gamblers climbed aboard.  For most of the trip the equipment was under utilized.  It is ill suited for the current mission.   There is little sustainable market demand for long distance passenger trains.  This would become crystal clear if Amtrak charged the fully allocated cost of the service.  Many of the relatively few passengers that patronize the long distance trains would desert them.  As it is, less than one per cent of intercity travelers use them. Yep, I am one of them.  I love traveling by train.  But I do not do so with blinders.  My accounting and business backgrounds tell me that they would be gone in a minute if the large subsidies were withdrawn.  The train buff in me would lament their passing.  But the accountant and business person would revel in the fiscal responsibility of stemming the red ink.  And hopefully directing it to operations that have a chance of at least covering their operating expenses.
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