I think the real question we will ultimately get to is going to be environmental to a large extent. There are substantial subsidies buried in car transportation, both in the capital expenses of new highways, plus operating expenses. As we see more fuel efficient autos and fewer large trucks on the road, fuel tax proceeds will fall resulting in more demand for general revenue for maintenance. Add to that the social and environmental cost of pollution from oil-based energy, or the limits on battery or alternate technologies, and at some point society will have to make some hard choices about transportation.

Air transit also will face similar hurdles. As oil costs increase, it becomes increasingly uneconomical to fly, and we'll see airlines focused far more on long haul routes where they can utilize the most efficient aircraft to best advantage. Commuter flights to Fargo ND may not be as common in the future as they are now. As it is, the government pays substantial subsidies for rural air carriers to the smallest markets.

I'm not sure what to expect in the future truthfully, not sure if anyone is. Probably will at some point see higher fuel taxes to encourage conservation and also support car makers' efforts to migrate to better economy cars. (Recall GM's president recently made this suggestion specifically as they're banking on small cars for their turn around plan). There will need to be alternatives for transportation, our nation is one of basic travelers. So with that, we'll probably end up more like EU countries where trains are popular and well traveled, but also subsidized. Get enough riders and utilization, and you get better asset usage, lower subsidies per passenger, etc.

Then again, if we continue down the road of assuming train travel must be profitable to be successful, we'll probably end up with a better maintained version of what we have, with a few more high speed corridors, and less travel overall. Hard to tell.

Still, a safe bet we won't see the California Zephyr return with domes and Zephyerettes. More likely to see a series of short haul high speed corridors linking major cities, with air systems linking select major cities to others outside of a few hour train range.

So much for domeliners on the NWP. (sorry, had to work one dig into this!)