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$11 billion later, high speed rail in US drags along

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[quote user="BaltACD"] <a href="http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/blogs/william-vantuono/high-higher-speed-rail-the-real-story”.html?channel">http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/blogs/william-vantuono/high-higher-speed-rail-the-real-story”.html?channel</a>= [/quote] I read the NY Times article and the Time article.  The Times article, in many respects, was over the top, but the Time article also makes some statements that are as shallow as many of those in the Times. At the risk of pulling a statement out of context, here is a quote from the Time article that appears to support my contention, i.e. that the Administration tried to spread the investment monies over too many projects:  "It’s also true that the Administration’s spread-it-thin strategy, featuring incremental improvements in 32 states, is hard to justify in a vacuum. You need to walk before you can run, but it doesn’t make much sense to upgrade trains from slow speeds to semi-slow speeds if they’re never going to be able to compete with cars or planes." Walking before running is desirable. But having too many walkers is not a good strategy. As noted in a previous post, successful businesses focus on doing a few things really well as opposed to trying to be all things to all people.  "But in any case, Amtrak’s fare-box recovery ratio is above 80%. That’s also pretty darn good."   If Amtrak were a business, which it is, a fare-box recovery ratio of 80 per cent or thereabouts would eventually put it out of business. If the Norfolk Southern only recovered 80 per cent of its expenses through its pricing mechanism, how long does one believe it would stay in business?  However, the 80 per cent fare-box recovery ratio for Amtrak is not correct.   In FY13 Amtrak recovered 86 per cent of its fully allocated operating expenses from the fare-box.  However, after adding OPEBS, depreciation, and interest expenses, the recovery ration dropped to approximately 57 per cent.     All too often passenger rail proponents focus on the so-called above the rail expenses, which is not a correct accounting term, and ignore the fixed costs as if somehow they don't count. Unfortunately, given the level of understanding most people have of accounting and finance, it is not hard to understand how they get away with it.
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