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Hassles of Air Travel Push Passengers to Amtrak

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"enough with the Amtrak has to be profitable crap...... If one takes an objective look at the numbers, as per a variety of government data bases, one can see that commercial air and commercial bus companies received no direct operating subsidies in any of the last ten years.  Moreover, the subsidies that can be attributed to them are minuscule compared to those for passenger rail. Depending on whether one looks at just the federal subsidies or takes into consideration a variety of state and local subsidies, such as they are, passenger rail gets 20 to 10 times the per passenger mile subsidies that are paid out to competing modes of transport, which includes commercial transport and personal transport. No where is it written that passenger rail is entitled to taxpayer subsidies.  It is my contention that it could compete in the market place if it ran trains where they make sense, i.e. relatively high density, short corridors, and the subsidies as they are are eliminated for all competing modes of transport.  Moreover, it would be important to price the true cost of each mode of transport at the price point, i.e. pump, ticket counter.  Could it work?  We are about to find out. Private operators in Florida and Italy are giving it a go. A read of the financial reports for most of the nation's major airports will show that they cover their costs and, in most instances, show an increase in net assets over time.  Most of them have received small grants from the federal government under the Airport Improvement's program, but the grant monies in most instances are less  than two to four per cent of the capitalized value of the airport.  Most of the people that I know who claim that the airlines, bus companies, and motorists are heavily subsidized have not read any of the government or company or airport financial statements. I suppose that can be comforting.  As an old boy told me one time, "I have made up my mind, please don't confuse me with the facts."
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