From: cfmpublic@ns.sympatico.ca   
      
   On Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:04:41 -0500, Stephen Sprunk   
    wrote:   
      
   >On 08-Apr-14 10:13, conklin wrote:   
   >> "Stephen Sprunk"  wrote in message   
   >> news:li0ugr$gps$2@dont-email.me...   
   >>> On 07-Apr-14 14:03, conklin wrote:   
   >>>> You said that, not me.  Passenger trains lose money, period,   
   >>>> anywhere.   
   >>>   
   >>> ... except for many places where they make a profit, including   
   >>> Acela.   
   >>>   
   >>>> Even Trains Magazine made that statment about 2 months ago.   
   >>>   
   >>> Cite?   
   >>   
   >> It was in the article about whether Amtrak would ever make money,   
   >> etc.  I was going to post it at the time, but I assumed everyone knew   
   >> that.  The pigs used to subsdize the passengers.  Now that is not   
   >> possible,   
   >   
   >Is has been proven around the world that, with modest capital   
   >investment, passenger service turns a profit; it doesn't _need_ freight   
   >subsidies.   
      
   Where?  The Swiss network gets government support.  The contracted out   
   services in Germany are government supported.  Some but not all of the   
   Shin Kansen need government support.   
      
   CLark Morris   
   >   
   >However, doing that would require Congress to pull their heads out of   
   >their collective asses, so I suppose that's close enough to "impossible"   
   >for our purposes.   
   >   
   >> it is going to be very hard to keep up the Northeast corridor.   
   >   
   >The NEC routes have the _best_ financial performance of Amtrak's entire   
   >network, largely due to Acela's profits; even the Regionals don't do too   
   >badly.   
   >   
   >It's trains running on your beloved _freight_ network that lose enormous   
   >amounts of money, almost entirely due to lack of capital investment,   
   >which hurts both passenger _and_ freight service.   
   >   
   >Investing in more/faster track pays for itself because you spread your   
   >(mostly fixed) expenses over more passengers paying higher fares.   
   >   
   >S   
      
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