[none]

[etmontgomery_@_verizon.net]

A couple of thoughts about subsidies: There never seems to be an end to them. Yes European trains are subsidized by the government along with other services. Europeans are used to a high percentage of their income taken in a confiscatory manner through taxation. Gasoline is expensive in Europe primarily because of the tax on it. I don't think most Americans are ready for this. When EL, PC, and CNJ ran their own commuter operations, even when receiving state subsidies, they were restricted in their requests for fare increases to cover operating costs. When NJDOT took over, fares skyrocketed over night yet the operating costs are yet to be covered. Government needs to look at how many people actually benefit from some form of mass transit. The majority of people are probably not commuting to where buses and trains go. I would speculate that there maybe close to half, maybe more of the population that travels less than five miles to work. I've made sure I have done that through most of my professional life. 

Commuter rail is difficult to operate in a cost-effective manner. It would be nice to float some tax free bonds to fund it, but they would never ever be paid off. 

When Erie, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, New York Central, CNJ, PRSL, and others handled enough freight to cover costs, they could absorb the commuter losses. I might have been a better idea for New Jersey and other states to offer tax reductions in return for operating the commuter trains than taxing the crap out of the companies and ultimately having to take over their operations. Thinking of Hudson County, I wonder how much they actually gained from taxing the railroads and ultimately chasing them out.  Some form of tax relief was probably granted when Newport was developed.  It is probably not producing the tax revenue the railroads generated.

Ed Montgomery 


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