Cato at Liberty challenging Brooke's report about AMTRAK finances

[Barciur]

This is a large article that's worth a read, obviously very anti-Amtrak but nevertheless worth a read and disect some major issues from here
A snipper:

If Amtrak is a major travel mode, then intercity bus, which (I estimated in a 2011 Cato report) carries three times as many passenger miles as Amtrak, is as well. A more more recent report from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute found that bus travel is growing twice as fast as Amtrak. Other than a brief hint near the end of its report, Brookings never mentions intercity buses as an alterantive to Amtrak. But if buses are doing so well without large government subsidies, why subsidize Amtrak?

view in its entirety: http://www.cato.org/blog/brookings-glosses-over-amtraks-failings


Thoughts?

 

[TimePeace]

The highways buses ride on receive large subsidies... and their stations are operated by municipalities... yes?

 

[crescent2]

What, Maine Rider, highways receive public money??! Surely you jest.... Oh....those horrible prices on the gas pumps are partially highway taxes, you say?

Bet no public money goes into airports or the FAA either, right?

Good grief. Amtrak gets a drop in the bucket.

 

[Nathanael]

Thoughts?

Looking at the byline, it's Randal O'Toole. He's a well-known anti-rail hack who lies and distorts numbers in any way he can in order to attack passenger rail.

I won't read anything by him at this point; the byline is enough to guarantee that it's a pack of distortions and lies. The other regular anti-rail hack is Wendell Cox, for your information. The two of them have a cottage industry getting paid by oil companies etc. to write fake "expert" pieces attacking any and every passenger rail project anywhere.

 

[Anderson]

*sighs*
Setting aside the byline, I think it's fair to point out that buses are generally going to end up locked to a shorter-distance market than trains. There's a reason that Megabus has been in VA for quite some time, yet ridership on the Hampton Roads-New York trains has marched along quite steadily. A bus is decent for up to about three hours, maybe a hair more. After that, an increasing number of people are going to want something a little nicer than Megabus is going to have a shot at providing. Put another way, buses may be able to fill in on Richmond-Washington or Philly-New York, but they're no substitute Richmond-New York. Another pattern I've seen seems to be that a bus getting added will hit a route for a year or so as the market readjusts...and then, capacity-permitting, growth continues like nothing had happened.

You've got a surprising number of bus operations coming and going as well, which is the other thing: In some ways, the bus industry is a bit of a "wild west" with some companies operating out of places they shouldn't at times (Megabus, I'm looking at you) or doing really bad things (unlicensed drivers leap to mind). And of course, buses are able to fill in with some city pairs that just don't have rail service.

One thing that is intriguing is juxtaposing this with Boardman's testimony: Bus service seems to be retrenching from rural markets, but remaining pairs are getting beefed up.

 

[cirdan]

Thoughts?

Looking at the byline, it's Randal O'Toole. He's a well-known anti-rail hack who lies and distorts numbers in any way he can in order to attack passenger rail.

That explains it. Anything that has his name on it is about as credible as sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.

 

[Barciur]

Where can I find good information regarding Amtrak's income and subsidies, in particular farebox recovery? I'm basically interested in knowing how much AMTRAK is doing on its own and how much are the subsidies covering the rest and then compare it to other modes of transportation.

 

[me_little_me]

Thoughts?

Looking at the byline, it's Randal O'Toole. He's a well-known anti-rail hack who lies and distorts numbers in any way he can in order to attack passenger rail.

That explains it. Anything that has his name on it is about as credible as sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.

Totally untrue. Loch Ness monster is far more credible. Get your facts straight before attacking the vast amount of (whiskey-laced) reports of Nessie.

 

[Anderson]

Where can I find good information regarding Amtrak's income and subsidies, in particular farebox recovery? I'm basically interested in knowing how much AMTRAK is doing on its own and how much are the subsidies covering the rest and then compare it to other modes of transportation.

Amtrak is easy to come by. Trying to sort out highway funding and subsidies, or work out airport subsidies net of relevant taxes paid is going to be the hard part.

 

[George Harris]

Thoughts?

Looking at the byline, it's Randal O'Toole. He's a well-known anti-rail hack who lies and distorts numbers in any way he can in order to attack passenger rail.

That explains it. Anything that has his name on it is about as credible as sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.

These clowns give being politically conservative a bad name.