Re: (erielack) Re: commuter railroads

[Njricky2_@_aol.com]

In a message dated 8/19/06 7:23:24 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net writes:
 
SGL, you are not off topic. You words are clearly stated.
 
Two thoughts: 
 
1- Had Erie Lackawanna and the others been treated equally,  re: receiving 
subsidies for commuter and intercity passenger traffic, would  they be a "force" 
in our national transportation system?
 
2- Since our taxes support all, but to a very small degree, subsidizing the  
rails, can anyone honestly answer why rail transportation (both freight and  
passenger service) gets the short end of the stick?
 
Again, SGL, you're not off topic, actually, you're right on. And you are  
correct when you say that passenger service never made a profit. Maybe it did in  
some places, maybe not. Overall, the consensus is that it didn't.
 
The movement of people back then was considered to be a necessity and it  was 
indeed. Today, our federal and state governments do not consider the  
movement of people to be a necessity because people have independent ways of  
travelling, i.e., cars.  
 
Once the gas prices continue to rise to European levels and Americans can't  
afford to fuel their gas guzzling SUVs and understand that the money we spend 
on  our gas guzzlers only continues to finance those who bombed my town on  
September 11, 2001,  maybe then, we'll see those who wish to be  elected 
understand that we can rely upon ourselves to do what our  forefathers did, in 
effect, take care of us on our own. We can.
 
Those who really want to see this country move forward will invest the  bucks 
in our infrastructure, including what was Erie Lackawanna and the others  
throughout the country.
 
Yes, T, it can be done but it won't until we tell those running for  election 
that this is priority.
 
Rick

"T"  writes:
> Could it be done?  Yes.  Will it be done?  Not  likely, unless 
> they treat it like a private enterprise - hey, wow,  what a 
> novel idea!!!!!  Mass transit companies that are private  
> sector corporations that actually make money without taxpayer  
> subsidies.  In our lifetime?

Nope.  Nowhere in the  world (AFAIK) is there a passenger service that makes 
a profit.  Only  here in
this country with its obsession about how things should be making  money, and 
its utter fear that
people might have to pay taxes to support  something, even if it is something 
that improves their
life on a day-to-day  basis, or provides services to individuals whose lives 
would be  absolutely
impossible without that support, do people persist in the  fantasy that 
passenger transportation can
make money.

And before  somebody says "Airlines make money," no, they don't.  They feed 
off the  subsidies that
taxpayers provide to build airports, and to provide the  unbelievable 
supporting network of radio
beacons, directional radio, air  traffic controllers, and so on.  Ride in a 
private plane sometime,
and  get an understanding of the absolutely enormous tax-supported 
infrastructure  that makes air
travel safe . . . .at least in that aircraft aren't running  into each other 
all the time, and can
navigate to their destinations, even  in pea-soup fog.  And the efforts, so 
far since 9/11 more or
less  successful, to make the rest of air travel safe are also tax-supported. 
  Possibly not in total,
but the TSA employees are all federal  employees.

Nor do trucks, in the same sense.  Nor do towboats on  the Mississippi or the 
other major canals
built and maintained by the Army  Corp of Engineers.  Your taxes support them 
all.  If they were  not
there, then the cost of that chair you're sitting on would be  astronomical.  
So would the cost of
the computer you're looking  at.  And the steak you had for dinner.  And the 
gas you bought for  the
car this afternoon.  You probably couldn't afford it.

But  to come back to what T was talking about, commuter traffic has not made 
money,  if ever, since
before the turn of the last century.  Based on some  research done by a 
friend of mine reading the
New York papers at the NYPL,  the ERIE, the DL&W, the Reading, the LIRR, the 
NH, the NYC, were  all
complaining about how the commuter trains they were running were a  drain on 
their profitability.  If
they could have, they'd have dropped  them in an instant.  But the government 
agencies, the PUCs, and
other  similar agencies, wouldn't permit them to do the train-offs, because 
of the  public good.

Understand me, I am not against taxes, in fact, I am for  paying taxes to 
support worthwhile services
and the provision of services  of which I hope that I never have to avail 
myself: fire, police,
chronic  medical care, and so on.  I do believe that some services are less 
than  perfectly well run,
but in many cases, it's not the individuals who are "on  the ground" doing 
the services who are to
blame, but administrative  nonsense, as often as not imposed by politicians.

We're way off topic,  and this is the last I'll participate in this  thread.

SGL


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