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Will Privitising Help Passenger Rail?
- Thread starter BobCass
- Start date
To be honest No. 3 Reasons.
1 We Americans love our automobiles to much. It is hard to get american's hard to use trains when we can go in our cars.
2 The overall size of America. In Europe there are some countries that are smaller than some of the states here. America has alot more rural areas than larger cities. Getting service to the rural ares is not financially feasible.
3 Money. We have waited to long to try to upgrade our rail's and rail service. In most of Europe and (at least) japan they have been more heavily utilizing their passenger rails for many decades. And as such the have been able to put more money back into the rails to meet rising passenger service(but not always).Reason 2 also plays a part here. Even if we in America would want to use rail service more, the amount of money need to fix rails, open new stations etc would be enormous. Not saying it could not be done.
This is my take on the problem of passenger rail expansion in america as I see it. I did not and will not go into the whole "Goverment problems" in regard to passenger rial service.
Kenny
1 We Americans love our automobiles to much. It is hard to get american's hard to use trains when we can go in our cars.
2 The overall size of America. In Europe there are some countries that are smaller than some of the states here. America has alot more rural areas than larger cities. Getting service to the rural ares is not financially feasible.
3 Money. We have waited to long to try to upgrade our rail's and rail service. In most of Europe and (at least) japan they have been more heavily utilizing their passenger rails for many decades. And as such the have been able to put more money back into the rails to meet rising passenger service(but not always).Reason 2 also plays a part here. Even if we in America would want to use rail service more, the amount of money need to fix rails, open new stations etc would be enormous. Not saying it could not be done.
This is my take on the problem of passenger rail expansion in america as I see it. I did not and will not go into the whole "Goverment problems" in regard to passenger rial service.
Kenny
I'm really surprised ..I thought a person like Warren Buffet would step up to the plate and attack the problem since his co. owns BNSF..I think in time it will come to be a big problem because of more population and the Highways we have are not adequate..
When has Warren Buffet ever stepped up to the plate unless it brought him more money? That's fine, he's a Capitalist, but he has no problem pretending to be a Socialist if he thinks he can grab some Federal money. Point of interest is the fact that he owes the US Government back taxes and is actively fighting the IRS in court to avoid paying, yet he will carp on about how the rich should pay more taxes. He could pay more if he chose too, all he has to do is write a check, but he wants EVERYONE to do so before he does, knowing that if the Feds took in more money it wouldn't be used to pay the debt, it would be used for some "Transportation Infrastructure Jobs" program that would only benefit him and his businesses in the long run. As far as improving passenger service or building new HSR, he won't invest in it because he knows it's not a profitable venture. BUT...if the Fed want's to build it with tax money, then he's all for it! He won't invest the cash when it comes to improving the track for the Southwest Chief, but if the Fed decided to spend tax money to do so as a continuing subsidy for Amtrak, he'd be happy as could be! Why spend your own money when you can spend the taxpayer's money? Meanwhile the little more than half of the eligible US population that actually do pay taxes are seeing their life, liberty and freedom slowly being drained away.
What probably would help is airtraffic to start paying tax on the fuel they use. That would up those prices and increase the search for a cheaper solution what the might turn out to be rail traffic for the mid-range travel.
I agree with some of the posters: the USA is just to big and rural to make train travel in most area's an economically survivable thing.
O... and another point:
When I was in the US a few years ago, people were already complaining about the high price of car fuel. I think it was about $1.79 for a galon or something. That was so freaking funny to hear, knowing that we payed about the same for a liter.
Having to pay a bit more for your car fuel helps in considering taking the train.
I agree with some of the posters: the USA is just to big and rural to make train travel in most area's an economically survivable thing.
O... and another point:
When I was in the US a few years ago, people were already complaining about the high price of car fuel. I think it was about $1.79 for a galon or something. That was so freaking funny to hear, knowing that we payed about the same for a liter.
Having to pay a bit more for your car fuel helps in considering taking the train.
Last edited:
jjanmarine3
Active member
Hi guys- with due respect - I want to air my view here too.
I am not sure about other countries and their politics, neither do I want to get involved in political discussions on the trainz forum, but I feel strongly that in my country those that have the power to promote rail services are not interested because they have their own transport businesses and will basically cut their own throats. Money talks and progress in the right directions suffers - worldwide .
I am not sure about other countries and their politics, neither do I want to get involved in political discussions on the trainz forum, but I feel strongly that in my country those that have the power to promote rail services are not interested because they have their own transport businesses and will basically cut their own throats. Money talks and progress in the right directions suffers - worldwide .
What probably would help is airtraffic to start paying tax on the fuel they use..
We already do, and then some. There are tons of taxes and fees on passenger travel.
Whether passenger rail makes money or not (and it does in some parts of the world), no-where does it make enough, with enough certainty in the timescales that modern capitalism demands. So any expansion of passenger rail will always need some kind of assistance from government (even if only in the short term).
Unfortunately, it's often these kind of public-private partnerships that work out worst in terms of value for money, risk transfer to the private sector and benefit to the passenger.
Paul
Unfortunately, it's often these kind of public-private partnerships that work out worst in terms of value for money, risk transfer to the private sector and benefit to the passenger.
Paul
I could name one problem, and it's track priority. In the olden days and now, the home road always got priority, no matter what class the visiting road's train was. That's Amtrak's current problem. Every time a Amtrak train is on the freight railroad, if it's in the way of a freight, even a peddler freight, it has to take the side track. That creates delays and make's the train late, I'm not saying we should change the law, because well, that would create chaos. I'm saying we should make a exception that only train cargo class applies for Amtrak.
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