Another Good Budget Move
- Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed state budget would cut 40 percent from Illinois' funding for Amtrak trains during a time when ridership has been climbing.
Passenger numbers and ticket revenue have grown during the past five years.
The Lincoln Service train between St. Louis and Chicago, for example, saw more than 633,000 passengers during the most recent federal fiscal year. That's a 25 percent increase from five years earlier.
Whoop-dee-doo. A 25% increase.....and it's still bleeding money if it needs state subsidies. Amtrak hasn't made money in years, and if the government stopped funding it, it would disappear to the savings of billions of dollars.
Then, a miracle would occur - small companies would pop up to fill the demand. They would set prices to the point where they operated at a profit and survive, thrive or die based on market considerations and the government would be out of the business of deciding why a failing business model should move forward when money is scarce.
Econ 101.
Then, a miracle would occur - small companies would pop up to fill the demand. They would set prices to the point where they operated at a profit and survive, thrive or die based on market considerations and the government would be out of the business of deciding why a failing business model should move forward when money is scarce.
Econ 101.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
31 Comments:
Anti Union 101.
The police are a failing business model, also.
How about a fucking train to places people want to go to.STL, not really unless for a Cub's series.
Set the fare to where it covers the costs of transport, maintenance, operations, staffing, future upgrades, etc.
If that's not competitive against other modes of transport, then shut it down altogether.
Sink or swim.
Sorry to rain on your rant, BUT passenger rail has for the greater part NEVER made money (except for the Northeast Corridor)! All the premier trains of the Golden Era (20th Century & all the other Limiteds, the Cannonball, the Chiefs, the Zephyrs, the City of ..., etc.) were all subsidized by heavy freight (plus Mail & REA) and were thought of as prestige advertizing write offs by the rail carriers. As an aside, road, air, bicycle, and water travel are all also subsidized.
If they ever charged the full, unsubsidized fare, there would be no one that could afford to ride.
Last time I tried to book Amtrak, the fare was 2x airfare. And it was two days as opposed to six hours.
A co-worker wanted to ride Amtrak from the Twin Cities to Chicago with her kids. She ended up being bused to Chicago from Winona MN after a bridge was washed out. Her relaxing train trip was about 50 miles and the rest was a bus ride.
If they were smart, and politicians are greedy not smart, they would have built rail transport terminals right into all major airports.
Want to fly out of O'Hare but you live in Podunk. No problem, just board the O'Hare Express and it will let you off near your gate.
In addition to the they should build a rail yard with extra passenger cars near the airports. If a blizzard hits, no flights going out here but everything is diverted to St. Louis or Milwaukee just board the shuttle and you will be flying in no time at all.
But politicians are greedy not smart.
Hey Bruce how about cutting the welfare rolls. Then these shit birds can go to some other state and suck someone else's tit.
How about cutting the section 8 rent vouchers in half. Why do they need $1400 a month for rent?
Sorry SCC, it will not happen. Private companies cannot run a railroad system profitably without subsidies. Remember that all other transportation systems are subsidized. Busses and trucks by the highway infrastructure, aircraft by Air Traffic Control. Private railroads are on their own, which partially explains why big railrads got out of the passenger business in the first place and why freight RR's have consolidated into a few remaining.
It's about time! Fund the promise Bruce, and your promise to fund police pensions! The 3% cola bill that we have riding on the firefighters you need to bring that front and center and pass it, that would show respect and the promise made to first responders, if something happens all the money your spreading in the fake phony reverends will they be around when a tragedy happens? Of course only if a white officer is attacked and a thug is shot in the officers self defense so they can get a piece of the taxpayers payout!
Will the welfare leeches and the illegals be there? Except to loot and cause mayhem of course not? Now that my rant is on why not make all link card holders undergo immediate drug testing at their expense just deduct from their chad k! Make a bureau to investigate all the welfare fraud that would be "change we could believe in!"
Airports receive massive government subsidies in order for the airline industry to operate. Highways receive massive government funds. Why shouldn't passenger rail carriers receive subsidies? Compare apples to apples and you'll find that all modes of transit receive subsidies.
Ahhhh, gotta love communism.
They could send that money to our pensions
Amtrak could be an option but there is nothing to support it.impossible to rent a car in the wee hours. flying is best option and is the most economical. rental car easily available at OKC. options to get near Stillwater a joke. one goes to Dallas then double back to OKC on a Amtrak commuter that doesn't allow baggage! look it up.
feds got tired of playing with their train set and dumped it on the states. now the talk is about bullet trains. spend a trillion? not a problem. they are out of their fucken minds.
Read the current problems associated with the Hoosier State Amtrak.
Indiana found a company to meet the requirements. The Feds said no.......and could not provide an alternative.
Amtrak needs federal help. Just like the Airlines do not pay for the ATC system in the United States, nor for the paving that goes on at O'Hare and Midway. Why not close down a bunch of the regional airports and make every with in 3 hours of an airport ( ORD, IND, STL for those in Central Illinois. The feds would save huge moeny. Then get rid of all of the gas tax and make everything a toll road.
Roads are a subsidized too. And they make no profit.
I've been thinking the same thing about highways. Why is the government wasting money on all those Interstates? Let the private sector take over. If not enough people use the road, why they will just close it.
Amtrak loses money on every ticket. But they make it up on volume.
In that case, SCC, let's make the CTA, Pace, and Metra stand on their own as well. Rahm would love it. Think of all the parking taxes he'd be able to collect, then he could impose London-style "congestion fees" because of gridlock in the Loop. Pension problems solved.
All Democrats failed ECON 101. It's a requirement for membership.
Now, kees me you fool!!!!
friend of mine just said the same thing
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Anti Union 101.
The police are a failing business model, also.
3/15/2015 12:39:00 AM
Why?
Mission Creep...
"We need to be able to see how "productive" you Coppers are so that we can set "performance" parameters!"
So...
It doesn't matter how many bad people you lock up or destroy. It doesn't matter how many lives you save. It doesn't matter how many lives you intervene in to prevent tragedy from happening. It doesn't matter if you trusted your gut and eased Mistuh Old-Man out of the way to do a well being check on Missus Old-Lady only to pull the covers back and finding a half mummy/half skeleton in the bed and all kinds of air freshener throughout the house... Momma forgot to get up one morning and fix Poppa his coffee, eggs and toast like she usually did for 60 some years. Weep for Poppa. Sense left his life the day she didn't wake up...
"I give a shit about the Police Work you did. You haven't written "enough" movers and parkers."
Anybody want to have that conversation about the "corporate model" being forcibly overlaid onto Policing
no matter how bad an idea it is and no matter how poor a fit it may be and no matter how many lives it has and will continue to cost?
The liberals, progressives, the media and their catered to constituent army have changed what a Patrolman is and changed what POLICING entails to suit their corrosive agenda...
Just you wait until "Duty To De-Escalate/Duty To Retreat" becomes rule, regulation and law.
The only upside is that no one will be safe.
Every living ass will be equally endangered
but those who push this agenda will still
demand some compelled giving of a diminished
fuck by Police when something ugly gets all up
in their lives.
All this resentment, anger and yes, even jealousy that Coppers have unions to protect them from the all but guaranteed depredations, misdeeds and abuses of elected officialdom and others firmly attached to the structure of power?
Call a spade a spade, disband all Police and let elected officialdom and those in the power structure come to society's rescue.
We'll be watching from a safe distance.
Remember... It's The Police who are the problem and everybody seems to have bought into that eye watering crazy talk.
.....Creative sources of revenue?????????.
City Income Tax????????????.
......Be careful what you wish for.
Did Elizabeth Warren find the blog and start posting? How can anybody compare highways that are supported by tolls, gas and road taxes to Amtrak getting money to subsidize passenger fares to get them to ride?
ATC is paid for off passenger fare taxes among other things, and considering that at any given time, (even in the middle of the night) there are a minimum of 50,000 flying in the US or to/from the US, it is a good deal.
Some very, very remote areas (like the Aleutians) get subsidies for passenger service, not the subsidies like Amtrak gets.
Nobody rides Amtrak, except from DC to NYC. The country is too big.
I'm not a Rauner fan, but Amtrak money can go to other uses.
Did Elizabeth Warren find the blog and start posting? How can anybody compare highways that are supported by tolls, gas and road taxes to Amtrak getting money to subsidize passenger fares to get them to ride?
ATC is paid for off passenger fare taxes among other things, and considering that at any given time, (even in the middle of the night) there are a minimum of 50,000 flying in the US or to/from the US, it is a good deal.
Some very, very remote areas (like the Aleutians) get subsidies for passenger service, not the subsidies like Amtrak gets.
Nobody rides Amtrak, except from DC to NYC. The country is too big.
I'm not a Rauner fan, but Amtrak money can go to other uses.
So I guess my 9 round trip tickets I have used in the past two months to avoid driving in the City from downstate did not exist? why the hell should I pay 30+ to park to go chicago for the day?
Go visit any downstate amtrak station. they are packed.
Part of the problem is that the politicians do not see the trains as part of the transportation infrastructure but a pile of jobs to place campaign donors in.
Like every other public intitution.
Ever wonder why in-state tuition for white to state colleges is $15K a year? So the universities can Deans, staff, assistant staff, assistant dean, community outreach officers and assistants coming out of their ears.
Our beauracracy is crushing us.
All modes of transportations are heavily "subsidized" one way or another. The reason Amtrak will be cut is because on average their riders are not able to buy elections.
"How can anybody compare highways that are supported by tolls, gas and road taxes to Amtrak...?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/study-roadways-dont-yield-sufficient-gas-tax-revenue-to-cover-upkeep-costs/2015/01/28/c9c0a92e-a585-11e4-a7c2-03d37af98440_story.html
http://taxfoundation.org/article/gasoline-taxes-and-tolls-pay-only-third-state-local-road-spending
http://www.frontiergroup.org/reports/fg/do-roads-pay-themselves
http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/Do-Roads-Pay-Themselves.html
Passenger rail travel was regulated and law-suited out of existence in the early 1960s. Sad, but the pols who now want to subsidize and keep on life support so-called "environmentally friendly" transportation were the same ones who destroyed it in the first place. Get government out of the way, allow freight haulers to profitably add passenger service to their runs and you might have a plan. I personally would prefer traveling by rail for a leisure trip than hopping on an airplane, but I don't want what Amtrak has always offered - a schedule that was completely user-unfriendly (4 am departure and 12 pm arrival in Indy if you plan a day trip to Chicago), depots located in the most dangerous and sketchy areas of town, no station agents available if there are problems, and connections that are nearly incomprehensible. Maybe it's time for Amtrak to go away.
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