Monday, February 14, 2011

The Railroading of America

PowerLine mentions a few facts which the Obozo-ites don't like.

Amtrak carried 29.1 million passengers last year. Sounds impressive? That's only one quarter the amount of automobile commutes in a single day. The proposed expansion would have little effect, as Samuelson explains: "It's a triumph of fancy over fact. Even if ridership increased fifteenfold over Amtrak levels, the effects on congestion, national fuel consumption and emissions would still be trivial. Land use patterns would change modestly, if at all; cutting 20 minutes off travel times between New York and Philadelphia wouldn't much alter real estate development in either."

By the way, the US taxpayer subsidized each and every Amtrak trip to the (average) tune of $45.00. Each one.

If you thought that those whistles blew, you're wrong.

They suck.

1 comment:

Al said...

I love trains. I would love to see more passenger trains. But given its track record (pun intended) in running Amtrak so far, giving them more money to "expand" & "improve" service is like given an alcoholic the key to the local brewery.