| It should be required to operate at a profit. If it can’t, then it should be done away with.
|
Posted on 03/13/2009 11:32:43 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden continued the administration's rollout of the recently passed economic stimulus package Friday, highlighting $1.3 billion in federal funding for Amtrak.
The money for the rail service, which carried almost 29 million passengers in the previous fiscal year, will go primarily to infrastructure repair and improvement.
The $787 billion stimulus plan includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service, a crucial investment to help ease traffic in the congested northeast corridor running from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, Biden argued.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Amtrak a treasure? It’s only function is to deplete the treasure of the US. It should be required to operate at a profit. If it can’t, then it should be done away with.
He rides Atrak to work everyday, I hear.
Everyman Joe.
a few years ago it was revealed that every AMTRAK ticket was subsidized $39 by American taxpayers ...
SELL AMTRAK!
shezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
“Amtrak a treasure?”
Yep, it should be a buried treasure.
It will be the subject of the 3rd National Treasure movie. LOL!!!
“...but we [shouldn’t] give additional money and reward incompetency and inefficiency. If that’s what the stimulus is about, we’re in a whole lot worse trouble.””
The irony of a Republican Senator complaining about rewards for incompetency and inefficiency is too delicious!
Aolumnist for the News Journal—Delaware’s biggest newspaper—just figured out last week that the taxpayers havie been paying for Joe Biden’s train tickets!
Biden, Tom Carper, Mike Castle—travel everyday to DC from Wilmington, DE.
On your dime and mine.
“It should be required to operate at a profit.”
Ummm, like the highways and airports and seaports do; like the rest of the government did under Bush, or Reagan...that kind of profit?
| It should be required to operate at a profit. If it can’t, then it should be done away with.
|
The “Chia Pet” announces money for his “Pet Project”.
We have a one stop Amtrak on ribbon rail here from Harrisburg/Philly. Rode it once and it is great. I thought they built it for me. 3 cars were almost empty.
Unless I am mistaken (and I may be), Amtrak is a passenger service, why shouldn’t they be required to operate at a profit like the Post Office?
How do you water an 0bama Chia Pet?
Put it on the floor and let the dog water it.
Plus it was revealed recently that the trains Biden would take bacjk and forth often had to delay their departure to wait just for him (when he was delayed). They did with made-up excuses and did it regardless of how it inconvenienced the other passengers.
“He rides Amtrak to work everyday I hear.”
Biden’s train left the tracks years ago.
Why should we subsidize something that so few people use?
As for the comparison to the Hwy system: the hwy system was put in as a way to rapidly move troops.
As for the comparison to the Air Traffic Control system: A necessity to keep thousands of planes from hitting each other in the air and on the ground.
Just wow. I suppose he ought to admire it though. It goes back to the Nixon administration - when he was still in the senate.
The USPS operates at a profit? Who knew...
How do you water an 0bama Chia Pet?....
You don’t...you throw it away!
Well, they are supposed to, anyway.
“Unless I am mistaken (and I may be), Amtrak is a passenger service, why shouldn’t they be required to operate at a profit like the Post Office?”
How does a transportation system like AMTRAK equate to the post office?
To the best of my knowledge, and I’m on the board of a real railroad so I have at least a little knowledge in this regard, I don’t believe there is a true passenger rail line (by that I mean to exclude the so called excursion lines), private, mixed or government run, in the world that operates at a profit except for the Japanese bullet trains and that profitability is attributable to its incredible speed.What is also incredible is the cost, borne originally by the Japanese taxpayers, of the underlying infrastructure.
I wish AMTRAK worked. I take the train to NYC for work (from DC) and think its fine. Ive thought about taking the train to Chicago, but its 18 hours. I can drive it in 13, or i can fly it in 2. Unless we can get more economical and faster trains, I think the US is too large of a country for a rail system to be worthwhile/profitable.
Ol’ Conductor Joe, and his model train system. A National Treasure? Give me a break. . .
Are you suggesting trucks don't pay the cost of highways? They pay federal and state fuel taxes (the federal tax on diesel is higher than on gasoline), and in the case of interstate truckers, those taxes are apportioned to the various states in which they operate. Whether this money is collected at a toll booth or a fuel pump is irrelevant.
The only reason fuel taxes are insufficient to pay for highway maintenance/construction is because the states either throw the fuel taxes into their general funds, or because of the constant siphoning of said fuel taxes into "urban transportation infrastructure" like light rail boondoggles and bike lanes.
What purpose does Amtrak serve? And why should taxpayers have to pay for it?
Clooney and Pitt are developing the screenplay for "Ocean's 14". Joining the cast will be Obama as the crew moves from looting casinos to looting the US Treasury.
That’s “an obsolete national treasure”. Joe’s trips to and from DC each day cost the taxpayers what, about $600 in subsidies?
Isn’t Michael Dukaka involved with the running of Amtrak?
Then shut it down.
L
“a few years ago it was revealed that every AMTRAK ticket was subsidized $39 by American taxpayers ...”
Well according to the numbers in the story...29 million passengers - 1.3 billion dollars - roughly 44 - 45 dollars per passenger.
I wish there was a way to make it profitable. I like the train because I don’t fly. Not that I think the taxpayers should subsidize it, but I do wish it were a good option. As far as I know they never repaired the damage to the tracks after Katrina, so in order to take Amtrak from here (S. FL) to TX I would have to go thru DC or Chicago, which adds days to the trip.
Wishful thinking, I know.
Can I play the part where they get the gold? LOL!!
With the 2001 downsizing of Amtrak service due to Congressional and Presidential action, Los Angeles - Las Vegas - Salt Lake City service (The Desert Wind) was discontinued. Now the only Amtrak service to Las Vegas is on Amtrak California’s San Joaquin route. With the elimination of the Desert Wind, the Amtrak ticket office in Las Vegas also closed, so now there is no checked baggage or package express service to/from Las Vegas.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/rail/go/amtrak/stations/l_p/las-vegas/index.cfm
2 words....dingeee harry
He used to ride it to work everyday, but last November the public gave him the keys to a mansion in DC.
As I recall his brother/son work for a lobbying firm that represents Amtrak.
How sweet it is.
He needs to get his hands out of my wallet. The bast@#@!
It is very similar with buses where I live. If I want to ride the bus from here to Boulder, it is an hour. If I drive it, 15 minutes.
Hmmm you have a point.
You should take the train to Chicago anyway. Even tho it takes longer, you don’t have to drive, which is much more relaxing. And the terminal in Chicago is pretty fabulous.
I lived in Paris for a semester and thought the European system was fantastic. I’d be curious to know how much a system like that costs and how its paid for.
LOL. Oh, that's good enough to be on the Official Friday Silliness Thread.
Unfortunately, under the American system, when a passenger train and a freight train need to run on the same track at the same time, guess which one takes priority and which one sits on the siding?
yep...well, I’m not surprised the cost has increased...
my number was dated
Well, as long as I provided you with a little bit of humor.
Amtrak will never make any profit,because it is too expensive to be attractive to travelers.
A trip with 2 adults and 2 kids ,Washington DC to Orlando is about $ 648.00 One way takes 17 hrs. A round trip flight can be had for $450.00, and I can drive it in my car for less than $100.00 in gas.
I’d rather they’d save long distance passenger trains than about a dozen other pork projects the Gov. funds. Love the trains.
That’s how I feel.
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To be consistent, truckers should have to turn a profit after paying tolls for use of the Interstate Highway system; airlines should have to turn a profit after paying for the airports and the air traffic control system. Personally I'm fine with that, but if the government is going to provide huge subsidies to transportation by roads and air, then it doesn't seem reasonable to insist that rail transport compete against those things without subsidies.