Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 7:25 AM
Mon Nov 30
14 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
07/06/09
One does make money moving freight! - CSX Exec ???
I would love to see monorails to/from towns. But that isn't profitable...
07/05/09
Except I drive a Dodge.
07/04/09
It was like a game of Clue to figure out where the train would be at what time and some stations are only "stop on demand"--oh, and in DC, they take off the fast engines and put on the slow ones for the Crescent (a.k.a. "Sidewinder" for its frequent derailments) and other south-bounders. But it's still cost competitive against driving and flying--like 80 bucks from Richmond VA to New Haven CT. I would gladly take a commuter train to my job--except there isn't one.
My European friends are always shocked that a country this size has so little rail service.
07/04/09
07/04/09
07/05/09
07/04/09
Who do you think pays for roads?
Who do you think who pays for war in the middle east to keep the oil coming?
But trains aren't in style. So THAT mode of transportation alone should stop receiving subsidies.
07/04/09
One of these things is not like the other. One of these things makes sense.
Motorists pay for the roads on which they travel through on-road fuel taxes and tolls.
Air travel and railways actually cost the traveler less than the cost involved in operation.
The war is about ideology, not oil. Regardless of how ruthless the dictator is in any oil producing country, if we keep paying for the oil, they'll keep sending it over. Starting a war is counter productive, capitalistically.
07/04/09
A quick look at Wikipedia (admittedly, not the best source) indicates that the interstate highway system is not fully funded by gas taxes but relies on general government revenues as well.
You seem to be indicating that not only is it completely paid by motorists, but that motorists also fund rail and air?
Do you have a source for that information supporting your statements?
Just interested in knowing one way or another.
07/04/09
07/04/09
Roughly speaking, most years, the total revenue would be about equal to highway spending if you take Highway patrol out of the equation.
However, records wise, the revenue falls short, and is subsidized primarily by property taxes (presumably by those businesses and residences that benefit from the roadway)
The taxes from fuel are mostly reserved for transportation, and most of that goes toward roadways, but officially, some goes toward public transit.
Most statistical data supports the perception that fuel taxes equate to a near net-zero use tax.
Back to your citing Wikipedia: I have no real issues with what is stated there, but while it mentions generous public funding, (what I assume you are referring to), it ignores that the vast majority of those public funds are from fuel tax (which is mostly earmarked specifically for transportation spending).
So, I guess the answer is yes and no.
07/04/09
07/04/09
07/04/09
07/04/09
In my opinion, rail needs to be fast, efficent and most importantly, run by people who are NOT tied down by the the government looking over their shoulder. Because me, when the government gets involved in the world of business, things never turn out well.
07/05/09
07/05/09
12/14/08
Yeah, I do lurve me some trains...
12/14/08
12/14/08
It's amazing how technological process manages to render traveling at 200+mph, once thought to be as impossible as reaching the moon, as calm, serene, and even slightly boring. See the Shinkansen for more proof.
Still, if only America had the motivation to build these in the Eastern corridor - we can't get Acela working properly, why not tear it down and build a maglev instead?
12/14/08
go CHSR, go!!
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
12/14/08
Where's my maglev train to get me from hamilton to downtown toronto, or barrie to toronto, or from calgary to edmonton, or from vancouver to calgary..
ya ya.. jealous.. you betcha.. my tax dollars at work.. I need to get outta this frozen wasteland.
12/15/08
But the planning (or, plotting, to be more accurate) for all this was taking place back when oil was at $150, and Alberta was swimming in budget surpluses so huge they didn't know what to do with it all.