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[quote user="schlimm"] sam1:  I believe you said the goal should be "to stop subsidizing all forms of transportation."  That would include a lot more than LD trains and EAS.  If they really paid their ways, it would mean trucking companies and airlines would find their expenses would increase to a level they could not stay in business.  What they really cost in general revenue funds is well in excess of their "user fee contributions."   However, I would not be in favor of that because of the concept of providing for the common good.  The basic idea of a state is that we all contribute to services etc. that benefit the entire society, not just pay for what we as individual may use or want.  If we lived in that sort of a place, many of us would not pay for schools, fire departments, police etc. because we may not use them.  Some would refuse to pay taxes for the military.  Others would refuse to be taxed for Social Security.  The list goes on and on.  Notions of living in a cafeteria-style state would be disastrous if it weren't so ludicrous. On the other hand, I think your research on the Texas station situation is a very helpful contribution.  Although I believe in subsidies for capital investment for passenger service, I also think we need to be mindful of finding ways to increase productivity and give incentives for that in a non-profit.  Profit-making corporations have a built-in method to do that which has been used successfully for years.  But there are sectors of the economy, like passenger rail, where the profit motive may not be the best method to ration scarce resources.  Other methods to do so and reduce wasteful practices and increase efficiency need to be explored/discovered.[/quote] The talking point was transport subsidies.  Schools, fire departments, police, Social Security, defense, etc. have nothing to do with public and private transport. If you take the time to plough through the budgets and financial statements of DOT, FAA, Homeland Security, as well as your state related organizations, you will find that general revenue funds, whilst differing from mode to mode, are a small per centage of the total revenue stream.  Most of the transport in the U.S., with the execption of passenger rail, is covered by direct and indirect user fees.
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