From the archives Wrote:
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> I can't do the math, but the highway appropriation
> is about $200+ billion a year, population of the
> country is 300 million, so the per capita subsidy
> for federal roads (not county, city, or state) is
> about $66.67. Amtrak's budget is $1.2 billion, so
> its per capita subsidy is $4.

Another way to look at it, is that the average American uses roads multiple times a day. Statistically, only one in 100 Americans rides Amtrak...and only once a year.

Another way to look at it...on a per-passenger-mile basis, highways get about one penny per passenger-mile (and that assumes that passengers have to pay the full costs of the roads and freight pays nothing...) Amtrak gets around 40 cents per passenger-mile.

Another way to look at it...highway users pay a s--t ton of taxes to use highways. Amtrak riders do not. Even airline passengers have to pay a tax to use the airport, how many Amtrak stations charge a Passenger Facility Charge? Airline passengers have to pay for security; show me on a ticket receipt the tax for funding Amtrak Police.

Another way to look at it...Greyhound served more passengers nationally (outside of the NEC) and more communities, had to pay FULL federal and state taxes...and got virtually zero subsidy from the government. As Greyhound is faltering, Amtrak's supporters are not demanding the takeover of Greyhound and renaming it to AmBus, proving that Amtrak's "necessity" argument is 100% bogus, and thus defying any validation as to why Amtrak is an instrumentality of the federal government...

Call me, when Amtrak passengers pay an effective 50% tax rate on each ticket they buy; that their fare covers the cost of service, AND they are required to serve ALL of America even if that means using planes, boats or buses...and they can't cherry pick "the best of America" like Whitefish, Montana, or San Luis Obispo, California, or Sanford, Florida. ALL the cities. Even the poor ones with 80% poverty rates.