Posted on 07/10/2010 8:03:10 AM PDT by Willie Green
One last question, Willie - Are you aware that airlines are part of the private sector and trains are government sector?
I'm sorry sir but to think that the airline industry is not taxpayer subsidized as intensely as rail is simply ignorance. Call a pig a cow if you want it doesn't make it so.
On an energy per passenger mile basis rail is significantly more efficient than air travel. That's not saying that air travel is not appropriate on a travel time basis over much of the nation. But for shorter distances, say under two hundred miles, the comparative efficiencies are not even close.
We have advocated for years turning over the National Airspace System (NAS) to a private (airline) consortium, in which case the costs would be much more closely coupled with the enterprise. And it would become more efficient, as competition and honest productivity would impose.
The same can be said about rail, and indeed with freight, where the corporations do in fact own the Rights-of-Way, the "private" enterprises do succeed.
For "passenger freight" on rail I'm not sure where the hitch is. But for shorter distances rail is a comprehensively more efficient mode. And Economics is Energy regardless of what they say at Princeton.
Safety is of course an entirely different matter, as no matter what mode it is a matter of discipline, attention, competence, and burden.
The last line is the clincher for my position. Even when gooberment money was in the offing, SW Airlines went in on a free market basis.
That was South Carolina, and it didn't stop Southwest from taking the money in Florida.
Furthermore, one only need google "airline subsidy" to come up with infinite examples of airline/aviation tax pork.
So spare us your sanctimonious poop about " airlines are part of the private sector and trains are government sector"
We need to fire some incompetent government worker asses who have proven the peter principle is alive and well. People don’t pay for their incompetence anymore and that is a huge mistake for our society.
“I’m sorry sir but to think that the airline industry is not taxpayer subsidized as intensely as rail is simply ignorance.”
Were you addressing what I wrote, you would be correct. But I did not make that claim regarding the airline under discussion, and therefore you reply in not responsive. Just noting, nothing personal.
“Safety is of course an entirely different matter, as no matter what mode it is a matter of discipline, attention, competence, and burden.”
Here you raise an interesting issue. When unions are allowed into the issue of retention of erring employees, a circus ensues. Here in Miami, a L-1011 lost all three engines departing MIA. Seems the union dipsh*t mechanic (term used very casually) forgot to safty wire the engine bearing dipsticks!
When the dipstick came out, so did the gearing lube, and the ‘sound of silence’ ensued. Thanks to superb pilot skills, and good luck, the plane managed to land as the last engine was spooling down. That means the hydrolic power to control the plane stopped about the time the wheels hit the ground.
The sum and substance is that the airline could not fire the dipsh*t, ‘cause the union had the power to force the airline to “retrain” Mr. Dipsh*t!
A person I knew since college was a pilot, and defended “Mr. Dipsh*t’s right to make a living”. Once a union man, always a union man.
When the train pushers agree to a real free market, sans goobers in gooberment agencies, and minus unions, perhaps then they will find a different reception from America and the Conservatives.
You get a George Carlin routine. :-)
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