Don't let this Ebay catch get away!

[Mark5]

Truth is, the one part of Amtrak wholly owned by itself, the NEC, is profitable,

I don't believe the NEC is a profit center if you factor in all costs ... I'm not sure if this has changed but I doubt it. Data from 1999:

No Amtrak route is profitable when the cost of equipment and facilities are included. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-98-151, pp. 6-7.) One type of service on one route is marginally profitable: Metroliners (Boston to Washington, DC) make $5 profit per passenger. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-98-151, p. 30.) "Amtrak's revenues have never covered all the costs for providing intercity rail passenger service on any route." (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-95-71, p. 64.)

Northeast Corridor routes cover about 65% of their operating and equipment costs combined, and other routes cover about 50% of such costs. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-95-71, p. 8.)

http://ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/transportation/trans-4.cfm

[C855B]

I'm in the traffic management biz, and from that know that 70-75% of highway infrastructure construction and upkeep costs are to engineer, build and repair roads to accommodate 40 ton commercial trucks... yet these same trucks fund (through fuel and registration taxes) only 30%. The rest is you and me, baby.

And then there are river barges, who pay nothing for infrastructure construction and maintenance. Zero. By law.

But I wouldn't thump "railroads pay their own way" too hard. They got their due in the land grants in the 1800s and early 20th century. SP kept their heads above water running a slipshod railroad operation for years because they owned something like half of California, or at least the parts that were worth anything. The SPSF merger put an end to that, and the rest you know.

(I love the way we hijacked this thread into a useful discussion when it was originally a 'guffaw' at some WTF? on eBay.)

[ljudice]

Have any US airlines made a substantial profit in the last decade????

With infrastructure collapsing, airline travel becoming a dangerous and utterly demeaning (full body scanners???) business, energy price uncertainty, issues around carbon usage whether real or imagined that will have to be addressed unless the US decides to just seal itself off from the rest of the world... etc...

Our children will regret the fact we didn't do something to build a real integrated transportation system - hey, I am angry our parents didn't do it too!!!  The odds are we never will.  On the one hand some will never believe the government has a role doing anything and on the other hand you have people who will end up building high speed trains into the boondocks just so it looks like they are bringing jobs into their district. There is just no will or courage to do the right thing on either side. It's really pathetic and frankly looking like a downward spiral.

At least the freight railroads are amazingly beginning to look like the only business in this country that is on the right track.

 

[ljudice]

BTW - that red CSX piece of xxxx is now fetching more than a Kato SD40.

Just think - these people vote!!!   

[Guilford Guy]

“No, not a bit of it. We only run it because we are forced to do so by the action of the Pennsylvania Road. It doesn’t pay expenses. We would abandon it if it was not for our competitor keeping its train on.”
“The public be damned. What does the public care for the railroads except to get as much out of them for as small a consideration as possible." -William Vanderbilt

[sirenwerks]

Truth is, the one part of Amtrak wholly owned by itself, the NEC, is profitable,

I don't believe the NEC is a profit center if you factor in all costs ... I'm not sure if this has changed but I doubt it. Data from 1999:

No Amtrak route is profitable when the cost of equipment and facilities are included. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-98-151, pp. 6-7.) One type of service on one route is marginally profitable: Metroliners (Boston to Washington, DC) make $5 profit per passenger. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-98-151, p. 30.) "Amtrak's revenues have never covered all the costs for providing intercity rail passenger service on any route." (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-95-71, p. 64.)

Northeast Corridor routes cover about 65% of their operating and equipment costs combined, and other routes cover about 50% of such costs. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-95-71, p. 8.)

http://ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/transportation/trans-4.cfm

I'm trying to remember what source it is, but I have read that when commuter services (MBTA, Conn DOT, Metro-North, NJT, SEPTA & MARC) operated over NEC and freight trackage rights (NS, CSX, P&W, etc.) are figured in, NEC is a profitable line. I would expect no Amtrak passenger line is profitable, as there isn't a major national intercity rail service in the world that isn't subsized. (GAO Report No. GAO/RCED-98-151, pp. 3.) Besides, rail service offers environmental benefit over ALL modes of transportation and favorable fatality rates over land-based transport. And no one's done any studies of how rail travel improves social capacities, which most Americans need after being cooped up in their tin cans on the road all day. These days, airports and highways are two of the least civil places to be.

[Ian MacMillan]

I thinks time to move this thread to the Crew Lounge, unless you wanna go back to talking about that orange hunka junk?  ;D

[up1950s]

Well you do get 2 pantograph's and what looks like a brake cylinder farm on the roof . The rest could be cocooned somehow , and made to look like a US made loco on its way to a strange foreign place like Australia .

[Puddington]

I've seen "thread drift"...."thread hijack".... and "thread destruction"..... congrat's gang; you've set a new standard for the obliteration of a thread's original topic............. ;D

[SkipGear]

Thread drift right back to topic.... look at his latest offering...


http://cgi.ebay.com/MT-TYPE-FLAT-CAR-W-SPITERFIRE-PLANE-DESSERT-STORM_W0QQitemZ290389214435QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item439c8bc4e3

Dessert storm spiterfire???? What the heck is a spiterfire and when did we have a railroad in the Middle East that needs to be painted in dessert camo?

[DKS]

PLEASE LOOK AT THE PICTURES FOR GREATER DETAIL.NO BOX.WILL PACK SUPER WELL SO IT ARRIVES WITH OUT DAMAGE. THE DETAIL IS JUST GREAT.PLEASE LOOK AT THE PICTURES FOR GREATER DETAIL. EMAIL ME ANY QUESTIONS I WILL ANSWER THEM ASAP. PLEASE REFER TO PICS. FOR OTHER DETAILS.

You think he wants us to look at the pics?

[C855B]

OOOOOH! OOOOOH! I want some of that dessert storm he's selling! MMMMMmmmm. Double-fudge chocolate cake, mile-high lemon meringue pie, Toll House cookies, chocolate mousse, tiramisu, cannoli... mmmmmmm. I can't wait.

[cv_acr]

I didn't know they still used planes of that type in the early 1990s?

[ljudice]

$78 now and 55 minutes to go!!!!