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<p>[quote user="henry6"]</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <b>Sam1:</b></div> <div> <p> </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <div>. Had Amtrak focused on developing corridor service between Dallas and Houston and San Antonio, where passenger rail makes sense, instead of wasting billions of dollars on long distance trains, we might have had a competitive passenger rail system in Texas. Unfortunately, Amtrak is a government agency that responds to political pressures more-so than market forces.  Megabus and Greyhound are market competitors that respond to markets. Time will tell, of couse, but they are likely to take away most of the DFW to San Antonio Eagle passengers.    </div> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Your answer, Sam, begs the question of if Amtrak were a private corporation or if a private railroad itself really wanted to move passengers, could the free enterprise system, entrapeneurship, be enough motivation to properly market and operate a passenger train service.  Unfortunately the answers are rife with political overtones and impractical romantic pangs of days gone by. [/quote]</p> <p>Had the government not stepped in to preserve a skeleton intercity passenger rail service, most of it would have gone away in 1971 or certainly by 1975.  Possible exceptions might have been New York to Philadelphia and Washington as well as LA to San Diego. No one knows!  What we do know, however, is that Amtrak has cost the taxpayers more than $28 billion dollars in accumulated losses since its start-up in 1971.  And this does not take into consideration the additional forgone revenues because Amtrak pays no taxes, i.e. property, inventory, sales, or fuel.</p> <p>My fondness for passenger trains is offset by my fondness for not wasting the taxpayer's money on commercial projects that cannot stand on their own in the market place, especially given the fact that the federal, state, and local government debt in this country is more than $18 trillion or approximately 116 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).</p>
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