AMTRAK

IMO it's time for high speed rail.

 

That's because California was spending more of the project money on corruption than on the project.

 

People romanticize railroad travel. I have been on many railroad trips. It is like being on a city bus. The trains went out of business because they were dirty and expensive and peopled by some unsavory people. Americans chose their cars 3/4ths of a century ago.

The tracks have been ripped up and the right of ways lost. Nowadays the public would demand bridges or overpasses at every crossing.

No entrepreneur or financier considers passenger railroads a good investment. It was a 19th century subsidized investment before automobiles and airplanes. Actually, the wealthy use private airplanes, not public airliners.

No one wants to be on a dirty train during a pandemic.

 

So you think that you yourself will invest in that project in Florida or do you want the federal taxpayers to do it? Notice that they want local tax exemptions but shouldn't they have to pay property taxes? Government is not a god.

 

Did you want to clear out the deadwood in the forests to stop fires or build new reservoirs instead of having almost high-speed rail between LA and SF?

 

It's in the drawing board stage and they want out of local property tax. So they must realize how iffy it is. Also, they really want to go to Disneyland from Miami.

I think that the government should sell Amtrak. I forget the status of Conrail, the government freight train. Beech Grove suburb has an Amtrak repair facility. It is nearly shut down. Amtrak loses money in Indiana. Reagan wanted to shut it down. We recently lost some service to Chicago. Amtrak is very slow.

A train is no place to be in a pandemic. Air traffic is down about 90 % with very cheap air fares kicking in soon. You will be able to fly anywhere for $39 or so.

 

I don't know but a federal subsidy has been given due to the pandemic as airline traffic is down 90 %. The last time I was at the Indianapolis airport, food prices were not exorbitant. Years ago I passed time at El Paso airport at a coffee shop and it was reasonable. I prefer to travel by automobile.

 

Yeah, that would settle the point. Not many planes coming and going at the Indianapolis airport. Parking is what is expensive there. Some say that commercial passengers may drop forever because they can meet online easily and they have tested it out for several months now.

My buddy used to go to Chicago by train. He said it was slow and the only food was in vending machines. Passenger trains sit in sidings waiting on freight trains because the sidings are too short for long freight trains. CSX has a yards here on the westside but it is only seven tracks but it is spanned by a new bridge. Most of the rail here in Indy was raised about 100 years ago because of constant wrecks. Cars go under the tracks.

 

Never been to Syracuse but one second cousin went to university there.