John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 4:29 pm
SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 3:53 pm
I agree with Pennsyfan.
Canadian Pacific and Brightline both run passenger trains.
Plenty of other for-profit companies do around the world, even though in most cases they get government funding of some type.
Well, first
BRIGHTLINE IS NOT RUNNING
So, your dog does not hunt. Even today, Amtrak is running.
Second, CP is running one-off service with its executive fleet. It is not scheduled passenger service.
Your second dog doesn’t hunt.
Finally, subsidies? So you simply want another company to take over Amtrak? That was tried earlier this Administration. No one bit
You have three dogs, none of which hunt.
Care to try again?
Canadian Pacific's passenger trains are described at royalcanadianpacific.com. It runs its own passenger trains.
Brightline, like Amtrak, is temporarily eliminating service. Yet it's still moving forward on expanding to Orlando and Las Vegas. It's moving forward.
Let's look at what other countries have done for passenger rail:
https://www.tssa.org.uk/en/whats-new/ne ... and-beyond
The US is one of the few countries that has a national rail operator, publicly-owned without private-sector operators that compete with it.
And look at what happens when government gets out of the way and lets the private sector allocate resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staggers_Rail_Act: "According to studies by the Department of Transportation's Freight Management and Operations, railroad industry costs and prices were halved over a ten-year period, the railroads reversed their historic loss of traffic "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_d ... tion#Price: "Base ticket prices have declined steadily since deregulation.[11] The inflation adjusted 1982 constant dollar yield for airlines has fallen from 12.3 cents in 1978 to 7.9 cents in 1997.[12] Along with rising US. populations[13] and the increasing demand of work-force-mobility, these trends were some of the catalysts for dramatic expansion in passenger miles flown, increasing from 250 million passenger miles in 1978 to 750 million passenger miles in 2005."
If you let the private sector act freely, it delivers lower costs and more supply of services.
That's exactly what the US rail passenger market needs. Clearly it will require government support, but there is a role for private operators and the private sector.
Dozens of countries in Europe have ditched their state-run monopoly passenger rail operators. Even Japan has. Why is the US the laggard, stuck in 1971?