Willie Green Happy Choo-Choo thread.
Promoting 19th Century technology for the 21st Century.
Posted on 10/07/2010 9:42:41 AM PDT by Willie Green
The new Amtrak train in Charlottesville celebrated its one-year anniversary with a Thursday morning party that brought together state and local officials and revealed— sort of— that what might have been a subsidized extension of the Northeast Regional train is actually making a profit.
“They’ve exceeded all our expectations,” said Mayor Dave Norris at the October 7 event.
Last October, the wheels began rolling with a promised three-year state subsidy as Amtrak brought one of its New York-terminating trains though Charlottesville and as far south as Lynchburg.
By July, the train had doubled its goals with $5.2 million in revenue from 103,351 Virginia passengers (against annual goals of $2.6 million from 51,000 passengers). And there are still two months remaining of first-year data yet to be reported.
“This is one of the best-performing trains in the nation,” Thelma Drake, the director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, told celebrants as she noted that there is “a little bit of money in the pot.”
Pressed for details, she deferred to officials in the home office, but told a reporter that the contract for the first year of the service reserves 79 percent of the revenue for the state, which committed nearly two million a year for three years to subsidizing the operating costs. (In a parallel move, the state agreed to subsidize a new link to Richmond for an additional $10+ million.)
It’s tempting to multiply .79 by the revenue and conclude that the state has piggybanked $4.1 million versus that $1.7 million commitment. Is that fair? The Hook has emailed some questions to the home office.
Meanwhile, it appears that 82 people climbed aboard the train whose on-time arrival interrupted the birthday party, and Richards noted that 217 people had already made reservations to climb aboard Friday morning. The goal was to get 70 people boarding each time.
So this is a developing story if it’s the story of a profitable train. On the other hand, Richards conceded in a recent article that the state has handed over $43 million in infrastructure improvements to the rails and stations that made the Lynchburg extension possible. The Hook is seeking details on those expenditures too.
“It was so unheard of that a train would make money,” said Drake.
I suggest that the books be audited and that proper accounting rules be used and the results published before I believe a word of it.
How much of the profit was spent on the party?
Well, I read the story and I can’t find the profits.
There are quite a few businesses that would be profitable if they didn’t count all of their expenses.
I doubt they include all of the costs in their figures.
Not to mention quite a few businesses that would be profitable if the taxpayer was picking up part of the cost.
Competition is easier when there is none.
The end of the article tends to indicate that they may not have included the proper amortized fraction of 43 million$ spent on infrastructure for the project.
They become a lot more profitable with the elimination of investigators who report fraud. No investigator = no fraud.
lol.
That is so true in an Atlas Shrugs kind of way.
Willie Green Happy Choo-Choo thread.
Promoting 19th Century technology for the 21st Century.
BTW Willie do you have a fiduciary interest in publicly subsidized passenger rail? It's amazing how much time you're able to devote to posting this stuff.
“a little bit of money in the pot.” After years of governmebt run Amtrak operated at a seven billion a year loss.Yeah time to party.
Virgil Caine is my name....
I think Willie sits around all day smoking Hopium while pushing the “progressive” agenda..
So are the Koch Brothers acting as “The Man” holding short rail down?
:o)
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