laguna:
Quote:
In case you just woke up from sleeping in your city college urban planning class, there is a train called Amtrak that travels from L.A. to the Bay Area.
Nobody rides it and it is heavily subsidized. The track was laid over a 100 years ago when land was cheap. I know that cost doesnt bother you dreamers but consider the cost of land, relocation and legal problems that would ensue today. In end you are left with a mode of transportation that people would not use. Planes are faster and cars are more convenient for the others.
I took Amtrak last year to SLO (thats San Luis Obisbo to you) and the train was a quaint and solitary experience, since it was practically empty. you probably forgot that trains stops at each town to board passengers, which makes it slow, just like the high speed train will be. You probably think it is going to zoom along at high speed from SoCal to Nocal-it doesnt work that way in the real world, unless you think nobody gets on or off along the way. You probably think that if it does stop tht it will just be for a moment like the Red Trolley. You probably forgot that each stop will require on and off loading of bags/passengers and that takes time.
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First, if you're going to question the intelligence of someone, at least get your spelling right (San Luis Obisbo--?).
Second, roads are also heavily subsidized. The federal highway trust fund has needed to be bailed out with $7B - $8B from the general fund each of the past four years (i.e. a subsidy for driving). User fees also barely pay for more than half of the cost of federally-funded roads (
http://subsidyscope.org/transportati...ding/analysis/), meaning roads and driving are heavily subsidized. It is even worse with state and local roads, which are often paid for by property taxes, sales taxes, bonds, development impact fees, or other financing methods that have nothing to do with driving and are thus a subsidy for automobiles.
Third, if nobody rides Amtrak, why has Amtrak set ridership records every month for nearly the past two years? Ridership was up on Amtrak almost six percent last year, while vehicle miles traveled decreased by 1.7%. Just recently, Amtrak set another ridership record over the Thanksgiving weekend, with more than 720,000 passengers (
http://thehill.com/blogs/transportat...rship-numbers/). The Pacific Surfliner route, connecting LA and San Diego is also Amtrak's second busiest route, outside of the Northeast corridor.
Let's also not forget that federal transportation policy and funding is tilted heavily against passenger rail. Last year, more federal money was spent on highways than has been spent on Amtrak during its entire 40 year history combined.
Who needs facts, however, when you have your ideology.