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Amtrak lost $800M on cheeseburgers and soda
Washington Examiner ^

Posted on 08/02/2012 1:35:12 PM PDT by TigerClaws

Taxpayers lost $833 million over the last decade on the food and beverages supplied by Amtrak, which managed to spend $1.70 for every dollar that received in revenue.

“Over the last ten years, these losses have amounted to a staggering $833.8 million,” said Rep.John Mica, R-Fla., in a statement previewing a House hearing today. “It costs passengers $9.50 to buy a cheeseburger on Amtrak, but the cost to taxpayers is $16.15. Riders pay $2.00 for a Pepsi, but each of these sodas costs the U.S. Treasury $3.40.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: amtrak
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Healthcare here we come!
1 posted on 08/02/2012 1:35:18 PM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

I’ll bet that one of Fomney’s kids could run Amtrak & get it into the black!!!


2 posted on 08/02/2012 1:37:40 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: TigerClaws

Willie needs to eat more cheeseburgers!


3 posted on 08/02/2012 1:41:11 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: TigerClaws

Just to see what it was like, I took Amtrak from Oakland, Ca to Los Angeles a couple of months back. Really no complaints other than it takes ELEVEN HOURS to get there! The cheeseburgers are in plastic bags and the clerk microwaves them for you. If Amtrak is claiming these turds in a bag cost them more than $16 apiece, someone is taking a huge payoff. You can buy a box of eight of them at Costco for less than $10! Amtrak, USPS, all the same deal. Cradle to grave workforce that’s overpaid and underworked.


4 posted on 08/02/2012 1:41:30 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: TigerClaws

Only Amtrak could lose money selling food on a train.


5 posted on 08/02/2012 1:42:47 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: TigerClaws

And Chevy Volt costs what? somethign like $140,000 and sells for $40K

And Welfare spends $100,000 to give away $30,000 in ‘benefits’ (or the equivalent of one full-time government worker making $70K for every family on welfare getting $30K)

now THAT’s good government!


6 posted on 08/02/2012 1:42:54 PM PDT by Mr. K ("The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum [of good]")
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To: TigerClaws

Thanks for posting this article.

“...$9.50 to buy a cheeseburger on Amtrak, but the cost to taxpayers is $16.15. Riders pay $2.00 for a Pepsi, but each of these sodas costs the U.S. Treasury $3.40. “

I see the problem. And solution.

AMTRAK meet CHICK-FIL-A. Their food is better and much cheaper.


7 posted on 08/02/2012 1:43:16 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Help. How do I put something in my tagline.)
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To: TigerClaws

If you know the author MM is million (thousand thousand). He needs to change the headline.


8 posted on 08/02/2012 1:43:59 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: TigerClaws
Give the concession to Chick-Fil-A. They'll come in at ¼ the price, and still make a profit.

Anything the US Gov't touches turns to crap. (They're actively hollowing-out and destroying the US Military, now.)

9 posted on 08/02/2012 1:44:04 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (Harry Reid [CADAVER-NV] has a goat in lingerie and stiletto heels, tied-up in his office.)
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To: TigerClaws

Maybe they should subcontract to Chick-fil-A...


10 posted on 08/02/2012 1:45:13 PM PDT by null and void (Day 1290 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Heroes aren't made Frank, they're cornered...)
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To: vette6387
You can buy a box of eight of them at Costco for less than $10!

Amtrak probably gets them for a buck a piece.

The other $15 goes to Union dues and salary and bribes and kickbacks and political donations.

11 posted on 08/02/2012 1:46:39 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Help. How do I put something in my tagline.)
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To: TigerClaws

The Moochelle and Bloomey should be happy!..........


12 posted on 08/02/2012 1:46:59 PM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: TigerClaws

Amtrak's new Logo

13 posted on 08/02/2012 1:48:09 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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To: Mr. K

“somewhere it seems, there is some overhead.”

Ronald Reagan in “the Speech” - “A Time for Choosing” about welfare circa 1964.


14 posted on 08/02/2012 1:50:51 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: Mr. K

Oh heck! The entire context....

“We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they’re going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer—and they’ve had almost 30 years of it—shouldn’t we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn’t they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing?

But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; the program grows greater. We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that was probably true. They were all on a diet. But now we’re told that 9.3 million families in this country are poverty-stricken on the basis of earning less than 3,000 dollars a year. Welfare spending [is] 10 times greater than in the dark depths of the Depression. We’re spending 45 billion dollars on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic, and you’ll find that if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 million poor families, we’d be able to give each family 4,600 dollars a year. And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running only about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.”

Ronald Reagan


15 posted on 08/02/2012 1:52:03 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: vette6387
It has been at least 5 years since I rode Amtrak, but the food was actually pretty good. Overpriced, for sure, but decent.

I've got to wonder based on what you said if the ObaMao administration has stocked Amtrak with friendly donors and/or vendors who launder money for his campaign.

I've been in the vending business in a previous life and know that you can get brand name soda cans delivered and serviced in a cold vending machine for no more than about 2x what you can buy them on sale for in a Costco or Sam's Club type environment.

The same pricing formula would probably apply to a trackside delivery at Amtrak. Every town of 50,000 people or more is capable of supporting a vending service company fully capable of servicing these type of needs AND turning a profit. Every private transportation mode (even a cut-rate carrier like Jet Blue) is fully capable of turning a decent profit with food rates even less than what Amtrak charges.

16 posted on 08/02/2012 1:53:13 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”- Milton Friedman


17 posted on 08/02/2012 1:55:11 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: TigerClaws

“By the 1960s, the communal, automatic soda fountain was a ubiquitous presence in Soviet grocery stores and eateries. The machines dispensed carbonated tap water: one kopeck for a glass of plain, three if you took it with a shot of syrup, all served in communal glasses. “Getting free soda out of the machines became a national sport. There were many ways to do it: coin on a fishing line, the fake-coin maneuver, and the most primitive and surprisingly effective method of all—simply hitting it hard in the right spot…. All in all, it was an ethical as well as an hygienic disaster.” —from Made in Russia

http://fuckyeahsovietrussia.tumblr.com/post/21186942801/ibeching-by-the-1960s-the-communal-automatic

18 posted on 08/02/2012 1:56:09 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: UCANSEE2

A lot of airlines stumbled upon that solution ages ago, to the point where the food companies are named in the airlines’ advertising.


19 posted on 08/02/2012 1:57:52 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Tories in- now the REAL work begins!)
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To: ridesthemiles
I’ll bet that one of Romney’s kids could run Amtrak & get it into the black!!!

Romney's kids, hell. One of his older grandkids could do it. Does he have one older than 12?

20 posted on 08/02/2012 1:57:52 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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