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<p>[quote user="blue streak 1"]</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <strong>Sam1:</strong></div> <div> <p> </p> <p>They are an exception.  But they are also an example of how roads can be funded and paid for by the users without indirect subsidies from the general taxpayers.  Equally important, the users know up front what it costs them to drive on the toll roads mentioned. The cost is not hidden.</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><strong>Please explain how I-90, I-94, I-29, I-15, I-25 in western Mn, Mt, Nd, Sd, Wy will ever be paid for by user taxes or could have been paid for by making them toll roads. Those roads are some of the most deserted roads I've ever driven. </strong>[/quote]</p> <p>The roadways were paid for by the user fees collected in more densely populated areas of the country and shifted to rural areas, which has been a long standing practice of the federal government.  It was the same principle that was followed in funding the construction of the transcontinental railroads, which ran through equally bleak country.  Whether there would have been enough users to pay for them with tolls is problematic.</p> <p>The Highway Trust Fund, which was launched in 1956 or thereabouts, collected enough in the way of funds to pay for the entire federal highway system from approximately 1960 through 2007.  It started with an infusion of federal money.  The user fees (fuel taxes, fees, excise taxes, etc.) collected for the fund resulted in a surplus by 2000.  And this was in light of the fact that a portion of the tax, beginning in the 1980s, was diverted to the Mass Transit Administration for public transit projects and the U.S. Treasury Department for deficit reduction.  </p> <p>In 2010 the fund required in infusion from the general fund of approximately $14 billion, following infusions of $7 billion in 2009, $8 billion in 2008, and approximately $7.4 billion on 2007.  Why? Because the Congress has refused to raise the gasoline and diesel taxes, which are really user fees, to keep up with increases in the costs of construction and maintaining the federal highway system as well as population growth.  </p> <p>General fund monies are sourced from the taxpayers.  Most motorists pay taxes.  And because there are so many of them (214,000,000), they are a large source of funds.  So the monies transferred from the general fund to the highway trust fund can be said to come mostly from motorists, as well as people who don't drive, although the number of Americans who don't drive is a distinct minority. </p> <p>At the end of the day, how the nation has or is funding highways, airways, waterways, etc. is immaterial to how and where it should fund passenger rail.  The key question is where is passenger rail the optimum solution for improving passenger transport?  Where is it an optimum investment or spend? Where is the nation likely to get the biggest bang for its buck?  Unfortunately, in too many instances, we have turned an economic and transport issue into a political issue, which means in the long run were are not likely to get optimum solutions.        </p>
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