93% of Amtrak’s routes regularly lose money.....
That's because 97% of the track is privately owned by the freight carriers.
Why does that matter? Track use fees paid to the owners of the rail lines are just one of the costs of doing business and should be figured into the ticket price, not subsidized by the taxpayers. If Amtrak owned the lines they’d have to pay for their initial construction, plus ongoing maintenance and security issues. Use fees are just another expense of doing business, just like fuel, labor and maintenance. Passenger train travel is either efficient and competitive with other forms of travel, or it isn’t. The truth is it isn’t at all efficient or competitive with other forms of travel, as has been pointed out to you by dozens of Freepers in response to your various posts. Most of the commercial airports in the USA are owned by the municipalities that they serve, not the airlines, but both the airlines and the airports make money just about everywhere. It’s a tight, competitive market and that further adds to the high efficiency of air travel. Amtrak doesn’t compete with any other passenger trains, yet still can’t survive without taxpayer money. Kind of like TVA, PBS, Fannie, Freddie and all the other boondoggles where the gubmint tries to interfere with the free market.....
” 93% of Amtrak’s routes regularly lose money.....
That’s because 97% of the track is privately owned by the freight carriers.”
No, it’s because Amtrak is unionized.