LaHood Announces Guidelines for High-Speed Rail Funding

[MikefromCrete]

If you really think all this is possible, Flagman, get outta your armchair, write a business plan, contact some investment bankers, and get your ball rolling. Get to it.

There's a difference: Flagman wouldn't just have to get a workable business model for passenger rail; he'd have to compete against the government-subsidized Amtrak.

There are lots of routes in this country that flagman could run without any competition from Amtrak, if he could persuade the freight railroads to use their rights of way, but in the end, flagman wouldn't make any money on the deal and would be looking for a bailout himself. Nobody makes any money on passenger rail, not the French, not the Germans, not the Chinese, not the Brits. (I know the Brits have privately owned operating companies, but they all get some kind of government assistance and run over government-owned right-of-ways). Come to think of it, nobody makes any money on the highway system, the airlines use government-run signal and control systems and barge lines use public waterways with locks operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.