i wonder if you’d feel the same if it was city transit workers being bailed out instead of you?

 

second payroll stimulus is unlikely.

 

I tend to agree. But if enough voters with a vested interest (ie us) write in to show we care a little, that might influence future legislation and policies which affect our industry and jobs. Organized labor gets the attention of the left, because we can also be organized to vote and they know it.

 

That conversation and many more like it are coming soon. The tax base has been destroyed everywhere.

 

Heres the problem.... this narrative is almost as dumb as the flipside that we can just shutdown forever. People were already making the choice not to fly or go out without any stay at home orders.... the only thing that would have made this better was an actual rational thought out plan instead of the half assed mostly reactionary bs that went on, which obviously is seemingly impossible in our country atm. Thus we are where we are.

 

So the transit system where I live has been bailed out multiple times and will needs it again. I am totally cool with it as I understand some folks need that transportation to get to and from work. This is like the schools debate to me. I could a pay a little more now to improve the schools in my area or I can pay more when the inevitable consequences of not funding them come home to roost, in the form of increased welfare, healthcare, and criminal justice spending.

 

They are generally bailed out all day, every day. Few such systems operate in the black. Sure doesn't in my town.

The only such system that's comparable to airlines as national infrastructure is AMTRACK... and those trains use red ink instead of diesel for fuel.

 

Not that I like competition but I wonder if more elements of the passenger rail network had reasonable service times if it could be more viable. It works in the northeast because the transit times are reasonable.

Hamburg to Munich is about 5 hours by train. New York to Chicago is about 50% farther but that train is 23 hours instead of 8. Of course that's because it's mandated to stop in every town with a population over 50 and probably because the track speed is 35 mph half the time.

For all the whining about airline bailouts, Amtrak has been on the dole since Nixon was president.

 

Rail in the US is inherently limited by our vast distances relative to other places where it is more successful.

Travel time can be improved by speed, but that requires new infrastructure which is hard for several reasons...

1) Vast distances mean vast expense. That could be overcome with enough money, but it would be a LOT of money.
2) Fast trains need fairly straight rail lines. Either they'd have to drill through some big mountain ranges ($$$$$) or go the long way around. The latter would increase cost and travel time.
3) NIMBY. Existing rail lines have right-of-way going back as far two centuries. New lines would need new right-of-way. The locals won't like it one bit, especially the one's who will lose their homes. This nation doesn't have the political guts to force the imminent domain issue on that large of a scale, for a dubious benefit in the first place. If limited to existing right-of-ways in populated areas, fast trains would have to slow down to handle the curves (and possibly noise).

So even if you overcome all of that, a 200mph train that could in theory do a transcon in 11 hours is probably going to have to go the long way around some terrain and urban areas, and slow down for others. Not even counting planned stops along the way, your're easily pushing 20 hours NY-LA.

Airplane infrastructure at least already exists, with established right of ways (and the air is free with zero mx costs).

Also... there's the security issue. A 200+ mph train has a lot of 1/2MV^2. How do you keep it safe? With the plane you screen everything that gets on board and then once you leave the gate nothing can really touch you. For a train, you'd have to secure every inch of a high-speed rail. And if you didn't, the bad guys would see it to it soon enough. $$$$$$

 

Also, don’t forget Amtrak is charged with stopping at every farm field, doing milk can runs. Back before deregulation, Ozark did those runs from Memphis to Minneapolis. Five intermediate stops. Took all day to get there with a DC-9. Often only picked up or dropped off two or three passengers at each intermediate stop.

Plus, most places they run on freight tracks. They are second priority. A “Z“ express freight can put an Amtrak on a siding, waiting for the express freight to pass.