“The passenger fees have not covered the cost of maintaining or building the trains and tracks and MOST stations! That’s why my taxes help pay for people to ride Amtrak!””
Well Amtraks trains riding rails in the Northeast make money. The rest of the system does not. Interesting note is that the rest of Amtrak’s system rides on private rail owned by private railroads. Amtrak only owns and maintains the tracks on its northeast corridor.
“Well Amtrak trains riding rails in the Northeast make money.”
True, but the majority of the people in the northeast live and reside in a close environment. And that is fine; however, not all of us want, nor NEED to live in this type surrounding.
I live in a town where the closest convenience store is about two miles away. My grocery store is six miles - one way.
I live about an hour driving time from my house to my city office. I have land to farm and I don’t hear the road noise from my backyard - that’s the way I like it and want it.
There are things in which the government needs to be involved - public roads is one of them - IMO.
” the Northeast Corridor will need about $1 billion annually over the next 20 years to meet capital costs on all tracks, tunnels, and bridges. Nearly all this money will be spent repairing iffy electrification and degraded rail bed along the route from New York to Washington.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2067822/
When gas costs soar the trains make a small operating profit, otherwise they lose money any way you slice it.