President Joe Biden is promoting new cash for Amtrak
President Joe Biden — perhaps the nation’s biggest Amtrak fan — is set to promote new federal investments for trains on the heavily trafficked Northeast Corridor.
The Democratic president is headed to Bear, Delaware, on Monday to announce more than $16 billion in new funding that will go toward 25 passenger rail projects between Boston and Washington, the White House says. Bear is located about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Biden’s home of Wilmington.
His remarks will be held at the Amtrak Bear Maintenance Shops, where trains are maintained and repaired. The investments, the White House says, will help trains run faster, cut delays and create union jobs.
As mentioned in another post: isn’t Amtrak a private company? Have you ever priced out a train journey? It’s cheaper to drive.
It’s cheaper to drive
A feature of Amtrak being privatized unfortunately.
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak :
Founded in 1971 as a quasi-public corporation to operate many U.S. passenger rail routes, Amtrak receives a combination of state and federal subsidies but is managed as a for-profit organization.
So it seems like Amtrak is run as if it is a private company, but it was established by the government. Calling it “for-profit” is also rather generous, because it relies on that government funding, and even with that, doesn’t really have any profits to speak of.
It is basically government subsidy of intercity passenger rail in the US to keep it from dying.
The intent was for Amtrak to be a for profit company. The problem is that passenger rail was a money loser for a long time before the collapse of Penn Central.
Every now and then I look into train tickets to the state my parents live, and every time it’s cheaper and faster to take a plane
Same. You see videos like from Technology Connections and think about how neat it would be and then you look and it’s $900 one way across the country. Round trip plane ticket would be under $700.
It’s cheaper to drive.
Not necessarily. Getting there, sure. But once you’re in an urban core having a car with you becomes less of an asset and more of a liability.
