Hippiekinkster
Posts: 5512
Joined: 11/20/2007
From: Liechtenstein
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: NeedToUseYou
Personally I'm not in favor of any more government funded rail.
AMTRAK, which has a stop about a mile from me, is more expensive than driving. Sure I can jump on it go all the way up to Chicago or down to New Orleans, but it is less expensive to drive there....... and to boot not be on a 100% rigid schedule.
How is that even possible? Considering how cheap /lb rail is. I've lived here the majority of my life and have never stepped foot on it, because when I look up the prices they are ridiculous. AND I HATE DRIVING.
I understand this is not AMTRAK, but if it's government or the merging of private corporations and government (that's amtrak) then it will become a bloated and unaccountable tax eating machine. So good for them not getting more bloat on the books. AMTRAK needs to be shut down at this point, IMO.
Anyway, last I looked Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway owns Burilington Northern Railroad, you'd think if there was money in such a project maybe they should talk to him. He wouldn't even need a government loan.
"Amtrak relies on federal appropriation to balance its budget. In 2007, Amtrak received $1.294 billion dollars to support its operating and capital needs. Amtrak earned approximately $2.15 billion in revenue while incurring $3.18 billion in expenses. Total revenue when including the government subsidy came to $3.44 billion thus Amtrak would have showed a profit of $0.26 billion or $260,000,000. " And they still can't compete against the V6 engine car.
So, there is another 1.294 billion that we can cut from the federal budget. Let amtrak die. If there is money to be made in it, someone will do it, obviously there isn't.
See, here's some of that fuzzy math stuff. Opponents of mass transit claim that they can get from A to B more cheaply via an internal cumbustion contraption than they can with light rail/bus/tram, etc., but they only calculate the cost of petrol. They never add in the cost of auto insurance, auto maintenance, ad valorem, tags, tire and used oil disposal fees, and all sorts of other direct and indirect costs of auto operation. They never add in the costs of treating asthma and other diseases people suffer as a direct result of auto pollution. They never add in how much it costs to replace trees killed by car and truck exhaust. Acid rain doesn't occur in their universe. No ozone. No NOx gasses. No, it's only the cost of gasoline.
I could go through how much it would cost me to ride the MVV in Munich for a year vs. operating a motor vehicle, but it would be pointless.
This is yet another example of how short-sighted and stupid the righties are.
The smart kids in my HS went on to become DRs and scientists and useful people. The B-level idiots are now the republicans. They were stupid then, and they are stupid now.
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"We are convinced that freedom w/o Socialism is privilege and injustice, and that Socialism w/o freedom is slavery and brutality." Bakunin
“Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.” Reinhold Ne
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New Reublican Governor's cut jobs as first act. Why? - 
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