By Doug
Ohlemeier
MOKSRail Vice
President
Reactionary "think"
-tanks spread falsehoods and distort the true nature and costs of
passenger train service.
Perhaps you have heard reported that long-distance trains such as
the eight states in passes through which Sunset Limited,
its important run from Florida to California, loses as much as
$350 per passenger.
The critics need to go back to math class.
My calculator shows me that Amtrak's yearly $521 million federal
subsidy equates to $24 per passenger, given the 23 million
passengers that rode Amtrak in 2002
Here's a hint to the geniuses at the Heritage Foundation and the
Cato Institute: divide 521 million by 23 million. That's a long
ways off from $350.
Commercial airlines, using the same simple math, lose nearly
twice what Amtrak loses - $51 per passenger That's $30 billion
2002 federal handout divided by aviation's 589 million
passengers. No, we won't touch the sacred cow of highway funding.
The losses there would be astronomical.
Now, if we can get our naive politicians such as Speaker of the
House Dennis Hastert to learn a little math and not swallow whole
figures released by liars such as the so-called
"think-tanks."
Resources for rail passenger advocates
