[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re:RE: (erielack) Railroads "That Should Never..." A&GW (1

It has been said that the difference between North Americans and Europeans is that North Americans think 200 years is a long time while Europeans think 200 miles is a lng trip.

Randy Brown
- --------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck,
Yes you're right, It's about 50% tax - an attempt to limit road travel (we're a congested country).

It's the combination of price, road congestion (time) and tension on the roads that is causing people to turn to rail - fast, relaxing and dependable (all companies promote their delay statistics) nearly all are over 90% on time (usually taken to be within 5 mins of scheduled arrival time) with some of the mainline operators achieving 98% on time. It's another confidence factor in travelling by rail - your more certain of your arrival time. The consequence is a greater demand for rail travel, which is good news.

The road/rail debate is always political and I don't believe that the true costs are ever revealed on a mile for mile basis, for example, in the UK road building is funded out of general taxation and it's known that road tax and fuel tax doesn't cover it, but then the rail ticket price doesn't really cover the investment in rail - the debate goes on....

Martin



	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org

------------------------------