An independent study by CATO came to close to $100 per passenger in terms of subsidies... A claim of $8 doesn’t come close to penciling out.
So how about it, bump tickets by $32 each and we’ll increase the gas tax by $0.076 per gallon. You’ll find a lot more drivers, and a lot fewer train riders.
Oh, and these gas taxes go towards maintenance of the highways right now. Not new construction (which is funded with tolls), but maintenance. Amtrak isn’t even covering its maintenance costs, let alone any costs of expansion. You want to use more sleeper cars? Great - raise tickets even further to pay for the new capital costs.
Trains just don’t pencil out. They are more expensive and less convenient than the alternatives we have here in the US. About the only place they come close to working is the DC-to-Boston corridor where you have insanely high density and relatively close distances. The rest of the US? Not a chance.
Why should I pay $1200 for round trip tickets on a sleeper train and food along the way, and spend 3 days traveling from Seattle to LA and back, when I can fly there and back in 5 hours for a cost of $160? Doesn’t make sense.
Heck, I can take a Greyhound BUS from Seattle to LA in less time (29 hours versus 36 hours) and for 30% LESS cost! Yes, the BUS is faster AND cheaper than the train. You tell me how that makes sense.
So the train for $160 (coach seat, like the bus or plane; a roomlette is $573) and 36 hours, the bus for $114 and 29 hours, or a plane for $79 and 2.5 hours.
Hmmm... Not a tough choice there, eh?
An independent study by CATO came to close to $100 per passenger in terms of subsidies..
Cato isn't "independent"
Same as "The Pew Charitable Trusts" (tax shelter for heirs of the Sun Oil fortune), the libertarian Cato Institute is a sockpuppet for co-founder Charles Koch, the billionaire co-owner of Koch Industries, the largest privately held oil company in the U.S.