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Bankrkuptcies, Profits, Subsidies, expectations.

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[quote user="daveklepper"] Sam1:   From what I understand, the Highway Trust Fund has not been able to pay for all the maintenance and repair on Federal funded Interstate Highways and general funds have been raided to pay for highway upkeep.   Ditto airline fuel taxes and the FAA.   In addition to supporting the control system, the FAA has funded subsidies to small airports based on the amount of traffic they handle.   Also none of this government realestate pays any real-estate taxes.   So, yes indeed, highway and air public and private transportation are subsidized, not just passenger rail. [/quote] In FY10 the federal subsidies per passenger mile, which is the best way to compare the extent of the federal subsidization, was 21.13 cents for Amtrak vs. roughly one cent for the airlines and one cent for vehicle miles traveled for highway users. In FY10 $14.7 billion was transferred to the HTF from the general fund because the Congress has refused to raise the gasoline and diesel taxes, which are user fees, since 1993. As late as 2005 the HTF had a surplus of nearly $10 billion, but it has been eliminated because of Congressional inaction. In FY10 there were approximately 210 million licensed drivers in the United States.  They drove approximately three trillion miles. Assuming the highway subsidy was parceled out evenly, it was 49 basis points per vehicle mile traveled. However, there is another way to look at it. Of the 18.4 cents collected by the feds on a gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents on a gallon of diesel, two cents went to the Mass Transit Administration and approximately four cents went to deficit reduction.  If these two transfers were directed back to the HTF, the amount of the transfer from the general fund to the HTF in FY10 would have been much smaller.   Historically, ticket taxes, fuel taxes, and other fees have covered approximately 80 per cent of the FAA's operating budget. However, in FY10 the ratio dropped to 69% for a variety of reasons.  Ticket fees cover approximately 25 per cent of the cost of the TSA's airport screening operations; the balance is made up by transfers from the general fund. The most egregious subsidy is the Essential Air Service Program, which heavily subsidies air service to a relatively small number of rural communities, e.g. Altoona, Johnston, State College, etc. Approximately 35% of the FAA's operations involve controlling commercial airline flights. The bulk of its activities are devoted to general aviation and military operations in civilian air space. Thus, for calculation purposes, I assigned 35% of the transfer monies from the general fund to FAA operations to airline passengers. All of the Essential Air Service Program subsidy is assignable to the commercial airlines. Approximately 25 per cent of the TSA's screening budget is covered by ticket taxes, which means 75% is allocated as an airline subsidy. The operating subsidies, as opposed to capital infusions, totaled approximately $6.7 billion in FY10. In FY 10 there were approximately 625 million domestic commercial airline passengers in the U.S. If one assumes that all the subsidies were prorated evenly amongst these passengers, which ignores more than 100 million overseas passengers, the subsidy is less than penny per passenger mile.   In FY10 Amtrak received approximately $1.3 billion in ARRA funds.  This was on top of the nearly $400 million received for capital improvements as a part of its regular appropriation. These monies have been used for a variety of capital projects, and the amounts have been capitalized. They are not part of the operating subsidies. Eventually they will flow through the income statement as depreciation and be captured as an operating subsidy to the extent that they are not covered by Amtrak's fares.   The FAA airport improvements program supports construction projects at airports throughout the country. There are more than 13,000 of them in the United States. Approximately 500 of them have commercial airline service. Some of these, e.g. O'Hara, Miami, received capital monies in FY10 either through the FAA or ARRA.  Again, these monies are capitalized, depending on the project supported, and will eventually flow through the income statement. Unlike Amtrak these monies are likely to be covered by user fees.   Monies going to rural airports are not a support of or a subsidy for the nation's commercial airlines.  Most of the people who use these airports own or use general aviation airplanes (business aircraft). Most of them are not potential passengers for Amtrak, high speed rail, or commercial aviation.    You keep raising the point that highways and airports don't pay real estate taxes whilst conveniently overlooking the fact that Amtrak pays no taxes whatsoever. It does not pay taxes on any of the stations that its owns.  Nor are taxes paid on any of the other stations since most if not all of them are owned by the cities in which they are located.  It does not even pay fuel taxes. And it surely does not pay income taxes, since it has lost more than $27 billion since its inception.  Neither does any other passenger rail operator in the United States.  There is a good reason for this. They are all run by a government agency. Also conveniently overlooked is the fact that most of the nations's airlines, intercity bus operators, e.g. Bolt, Megabus, Greyhound, etc.; trucking companies, barge operators, pipelines, etc. pay federal, state, and in some instances local income taxes, inventory taxes, property taxes, excise taxes, etc.  You also overlook the fact that the freight railroads that hoist Amtrak's trains, as well as some commuter operations, were built with government subsidies, although they arguably paid back the subsidies.  Most studies show that they have. Yet, even today, they get government largess. For example, the Norfolk and Southern has received substantial state and federal monies to increase the clearances in some of its tunnels so that it can run stack trains directly from the east coast (Norfolk area I believe) to the Chicago area without having to go through Harrisburg.   Also, just this week there was an article in the Dallas Morning News regarding a locomotive replacement program in Texas. Texas is paying a substantial part of the cost of replacing dirty locomotives in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston with cleaner locomotives. And the railroads, because of a loophole in the enabling legislation, have been able to transfer the locomotives to other areas of the country that does not support replacing them. Nice deal if you can get it. Tracing the so-called subsidies for each mode of transport in the United States is a challenge. This just begins to scratch the surface. Depending on your definition of subsidy, it is fair to say that each mode of transport in the U.S. gets some money that is not derived from user fees.  Call it a subsidy.  The key point of my argument, however, is that passenger rail gets a much higher subsidy per passenger mile than any mode of commercial and personal transport, excluding certain NASA and military operations.
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