Cities, Businesses Mull Spending Money Government Doesn’t Have for Railroad Opportunities that are Money Losers
The Arizona Republic reports that a group of idiots called the Southwest Valley Rail Partnership got together recently during these dire economic times to discuss how they can convince elected officials to take government deeper into debt to purchase the money losing sink hole called passenger railroads. These people are not interested in learning the facts that passenger rail in the United States cannot make money, but they do love railroads and spending other people’s money on railroads that few people will ever use. If you don’t believe that passenger rail is a big money loser, read these articles:
1. Government-Run Rail System Losing $32 per Passenger, Study Shows
2. High Speed Rail Going Nowhere Fast
3. Money train: The cost of high-speed rail
“It is a fact that no nationwide passenger rail system anywhere in the world is considered profitable when all costs — including capital — are accounted for,” . . . “Amtrak released a study in April to demonstrate that Europe’s system is heavily subsidized. Germany’s high-speed rail network, the most expensive in Europe, required average annual subsidies of $11.6 billion during the 10-year span that ended in 2006, according to the Amtrak study.”