No, not as in this picture:
This one:
Railroads, at least passenger ones, are a waste of time and a waste of taxpayer money. Face it – the rolling stock is old, the infrastructure sucks, and even in the best place in the country, the Northeast Corridor where the Acela runs, there are often delays, malfunctions, and now the TSA wants to start doing security there as well. In addition, Acela’s and The Downeaster’s (which runs from Maine through NH to Mass) parent, Amtrak run on huge taxpayer subsidies. Like this (US DOT data from Jan 2011):
|
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|
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|
Subsidy |
|
|
|
Occupancy |
Fare / |
Per |
| City |
State |
Train Name |
% |
Trip |
Trip |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Portland |
ME |
Downeaster |
19.6 |
$14.07 |
$19.49 |
.
See that? Taxpayers have to subsidize more than 58% of a fare to make a go of it. And yet, there are those that are proclaiming that this a roaring success! And yet, there are some “stalled in the Golden Age of Railroad” politicians that even want to do more spending of “money of the more for the rides of the few”. Glad to see this follow on has got these folk’s panties in a wad:
CONCORD — A $3.65 million contract to study a Concord-to-Boston rail line was rejected by the Executive Council Wednesday on a 2-3 vote.
Executive Councilors David Wheeler, Chris Sununu and Dan St.Hilaire all voted to oppose the project, which was favored by Nashua officials and rail advocates who had gone to Washington to secure the funding.
And the panty-wadder?
“New Hampshire politics just threw a wrench into this,” said Peter Hoe Burling, former chair of the state rail authority board.
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