On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 1:14 PM, P. J. Alling <[email protected]> wrote: > A road is anything the government designates it as. You've obviously never > stood with a map in your hands vainly trying to find the plainly marked > "improved road", only to be informed that you're standing in the middle of > it. > > > For the rest you have some points, but most apply to Brittan and few other > places. > > Often you make my point for me. Your government owns the trains, which are > an expense, so maintenance is minimal. > > In the US road taxes, in the form of gasoline taxes not only pay for road > repair but also subsidize various rail systems, which cannot pay for > themselves out operating revenue. > Bob W wrote:
Actually, most rail in the US pays for itself. Most rail _PASSENGER_ service does not, despite being both subsidized and also using right of way that is payed for by a 3rd party (the freight railroads) at nominal cost. Only some of the commuter services and Amtrak's high-speed corridor in the East run on dedicated right of way and the Amtrak right of way pays for itself (Amtrak's losses come from the other less-popular routes). -- M. Adam Maas http://www.mawz.ca Explorations of the City Around Us. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
