"Amtrak can’t exist without government support."
Neither can highways and airports.
I drive and fly to a lot of places that I'd be quite happy to reach via train, if train service was better.
I'm a card-carrying member of the federal income-tax paying 53%, and I want more trains.
Kunstler predicted in The Long Emergency that rail would be our savior when the roads and bridges begin to fail. Austerity merely hastens the day.
Posted by: Fec | Oct 19, 2012 at 12:18 PM
I agree with you Ed; and take the Acela to DC or Boston every chance I get (rather than a plane from NYC).
Also, the most valuable land in the country is right there within 4 yards of either side of the train track beds.
Long live trains. Build some new airports, and in the meantime, refurbish all of the nationally controlled train track---that would create jobs quicker than anything else I have heard suggested.
Posted by: G/ | Oct 19, 2012 at 01:44 PM
The auto industry would not survive in any country without government support, either.
I'm not talking about the bail-out of the Big 3. I mean that governments build and maintain the highways cars drive on. That's a huge, indirect but obvious, subsidy for the auto industry that the John Locke folks forget.
If we had to rely on privately funded roads financed via tolls, few of us would be driving anyplace.
The entire aviation industry is dependent on government, including the lenient bankruptcy legislation that allows broke airlines to keep flying.
Conservatives have a very selective antipathy toward trains. They get away with in most place because most places don't have railroads.
Posted by: justcorbly | Oct 19, 2012 at 01:45 PM
Conservatives have a very selective antipathy toward trains.
McCrory is an $11B exemplar, when it comes to light rail.
Posted by: Fec | Oct 19, 2012 at 02:52 PM
AlanfromBigEasy is the username of Alan Drake of New Orleans who I learned of at The Oil Drum 4 years ago. His passion is all things rail, so to speak.
Here's his recent blog on worldwide rail efforts:
Oil Free Transport And More
Posted by: RBM | Oct 19, 2012 at 07:05 PM
Europe is being lambasted in our news these days as everything we do NOT want to be. But to me, their parks are nicer, their food and wine better, and their trains run on time and are beautifully appointed.
They get it..
Posted by: Bill Yaner | Oct 20, 2012 at 01:14 AM