From: gl4317@yahoo.com   
      
   In article ,   
    Larry Sheldon  wrote:   
      
   > There are people here who seem to say that going by air is bad (for a   
   > variety of reasons, with which I agree in many cases, more cases are   
   > valid points) and that rail is better.   
      
      
   Not sure what newsgroup you are reading, but I have yet to read anything   
   by anyone here that has implied that air service should be abandoned.  I   
   just want to see the true costs of providing this service rationalized.   
      
   In fact, there has been a series of threads about getting better train   
   service to airports so that the entire transportation system can operate   
   as a transportation system, not as a bunch of discrete parts where it is   
   nearly impossible to use one mode where it works best, and another mode   
   where it works best.   
      
      
      
   > There are people here who bemoan the loss of rail capacity (street cars   
   > and such in particular) to the evil bus conspiracy.   
      
      
   As a taxpayer in the USA, you should probably also bemoan the loss of   
   rail capacity, since you are helping to pay to put it all back.   
      
   However, in many cities they are able to move a passenger over a rail   
   transit line at 1/3 the cost of a bus.  Sure, there has to be enough   
   passenger demand for it to be worth building, but operations are quite a   
   bit cheaper than bus once that demand has been reached.   
      
   There is one city in North America that didn't do large scale   
   abandonments of its streetcar lines.  That city is Toronto.   
      
   Sure, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, etc. all retained small   
   remnants, but Toronto is the only city in North America to keep vast   
   segments intact.   
      
   They did so after a citizens protest group demonstrated that it would   
   actually be cheaper, long term, for them to keep the streetcar lines.   
      
   Nobody there today seems to regret this decision to do that.   
      
      
   > I was surprised to learn that there is a head-to-head competition   
   > between high-status air travel and buses.  (I have always ranked buses,   
   > status-wise, right above "can't afford to go".)   
      
      
   In some countries, there are really good quality bus services, just like   
   some countries have really good quality train services.  The USA doesn't   
   have a whole lot of either.   
      
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