Nice! I just checked Amtrak prices and it would be $180 for my wife and I to make a trip for probably $50-60 in gas.
More money is spent each month on maintaining the roads in the United States than has ever been spent on passenger rail. If tax funding were reallocated away from roads towards trains the costs would reverse.
I would guess because Amtrak isn’t being subsidized enough. A lot of government money is spent on building and maintaining roads. If the consumer had to pay for that directly in the form of toll roads instead of through taxes then Amtrak would be much more competitive.
I believe part of it too is that much of the rail infrastructure is owned by companies, and so Amtrak is getting permission from them to use their tracks. Freight trains get priority over Amtrak trains, for example, and I assume Amtrak has to pay for permission to use those rails.
Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t like 100% of US rails owned by freight companies? And Amtrak must negotiate it’s prices for using them with each company whose track they want to use. This drives prices hella high.
Not 100%. Amtrak’s FY2022 fact sheet says that 72.6% of miles driven was on tracks owned by other railroads. That doesn’t tell us how much rail they own, but they do own some of their own rail.
Not only does it mean higher prices, but worse service because they have to rely on freight companies to maintain their rails properly and preference is given to freight leading to passenger delays.
Edit: Found a better source.
Ninety-seven percent of the route-miles traveled by Amtrak trains are on tracks owned by other railroads.
