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Did the Concession Company default on its debt?  Are they going to shutdown TX 130?   Lots of projects restructure their debt. The TX 130 project is in the early phase of a 50 year contract. Practically every start-up enterprise, especially capital intensive ones, suffer loses during the  initial years. And many of them have to restructure their debt.   I drove from Seguin to Georgetown today on Texas 130.  Between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.!  I hit the Austin area during rush hour. Sections 5 and 6 had relatively little traffic on them.  Sections 1,2,3, & 4 had very heavy traffic, which caused the flow to drop below 70 mph. Lots of trucks!  Seems like more and more every day! Time to get over it!  Whether there has been an over emphasis on highways, airways, etc. at the expense of railways is history.  It is a sunk cost.  In many respects cars and trucks are superior technologies to railway trains.  And Americans are not going to give them up in massive numbers to jump on intercity trains, buses, or local transit.   It is not just about cost.  It is also about benefit.  If it were just about cost, people would never have bought anything more than a Ford, Plymouth or Chevrolet. But most people in America can afford more than the basics, and that is what they have opted for, i.e. suburbs, SUVs, Mercedes, etc. Because they can afford it individually and collectively. And that is what they will continue to opt for more than basic transportation in most parts of the country.   You consistently overlook the fact that 25 per cent of the fuel tax in Texas goes to education. TX motorists are subsidizing education. And at the federal level they are subsidizing mass transit.  And in Dallas they are subsidizing Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). American motorists pay for the roads that they use. To the extent that they don't cover  the cost in direct user fees, i.e. fuel taxes, license fees, etc., they cover it in property taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, and general fund transfers.  As noted previously, approximately 92 per cent of Americans over 19 are licensed motorists.  All of them pay fuel taxes, sales taxes, etc.  Unless they live in public housing, they pay property taxes, which is a major source of funding for local streets and county roads.  And if they pay income taxes, which approximately 63.8 per cent of them did in 2011, they sent money to the federal and state government general funds.  Some of these funds flowed back to federal and state road authorities. America's roads are not paid for by overseas investors or little green men from Mars.
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