Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Government at Work - Promoting Passenger Rail Service
For most Americans, cars equate to a form of independence.
That being said, Americans won't be giving up their cars any time soon.
Government would be better off acknowledging those facts, instead of trying to force an untenable issue...
That being said, Americans won't be giving up their cars any time soon.
Government would be better off acknowledging those facts, instead of trying to force an untenable issue...
Robert Samuelson recently wrote about it at RealClearPolitics.com:
"Despite the subsidies, Amtrak does not provide low-cost transportation. Longtime critic Randal O'Toole of the Cato Institute recently planned a trip from Washington to New York. Noting that fares on Amtrak's high-speed Acela start at $139 one-way, he decided to take a private bus service. The roundtrip fare: $21.50. Nor does Amtrak do much to relieve congestion, cut oil use, reduce pollution or eliminate greenhouse gases. Its traffic volumes are simply too small to matter.
Consider. In 2010, Amtrak carried 29.1 million passengers for the entire year. That's about one-twenty-fifth of annual air travel (2010 estimate: 725 million passengers). It's also roughly a quarter of daily automobile commuters (124 million in 2008). Measured by passenger-miles traveled, Amtrak represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the national total."
