One of the great fallacies of "modern" thinking is that passenger trains do make or should make money. If passenger trains really made money nobody would take them because they would be too expensive. and that cost of public transportation in terms of the fares charged is typically along with the service the criteria for people who gauge as to whether they or not they drive their car which,as we all know, is absolutely free "except for the gas".
So getting back to the Flyer which is a part time seasonal train, how do you truly figure the marginal costs for that operation viz a viz a regular commuter train from Boston to Providence? Part of the problem with the T is that figures that they spin today spiral out of control tomorrow with the resultant ever growing T deficit. My point is that if a jammed commuter train running five days a week doesn't make any "profit", how could the Flyer possibly be making money? Ultimately public transportation is a societal needed service that is heavily underwritten by taxpayer dollars.
So getting back to the Flyer which is a part time seasonal train, how do you truly figure the marginal costs for that operation viz a viz a regular commuter train from Boston to Providence? Part of the problem with the T is that figures that they spin today spiral out of control tomorrow with the resultant ever growing T deficit. My point is that if a jammed commuter train running five days a week doesn't make any "profit", how could the Flyer possibly be making money? Ultimately public transportation is a societal needed service that is heavily underwritten by taxpayer dollars.