I have no problem with trains.
I have a problem with subsidizing them.
If someone would risk their own capital to acquire a thousand miles of right-of-way between Chicago & Sacramento, along with the rolling stock and the fuel used to make it go, and hire a staff to maintain tracks and rolling stock and serve customers etc.; and then make a profit by transporting 204 people on it over a couple of days, I say cool.
True, dat.
Name ANYTHING that the government doesn’t subsidize today. It’s the heart and soul of crony capitalism. I don’t agree with it but Amtrak is not alone.
Nuclear plants are always built with government capital because private capital won’t invest. Airlines only pay a fraction of their true cost of operation. We taxpayers build and run airports and the FAA. Ticket holders subsidize general aviation too. Companies today won’t build factories without taxpayers giving them incentives. Trucking companies don’t begin to pay the true cost of highway construction and maintenance that they cause.
Why won’t they release the name of the truck driver in this case? Only minutes ago “Skid marks show the lead driver, who died in the crash and authorities have refused to identify, applied the brakes beginning at about 320 feet from the crossing but was unable to stop in time, officials said.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/25/MN9T1K2PVL.DTL#ixzz1QO9aCRJq
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/26/MN9T1K2PVL.DTL&tsp=1