“Amtrak reported record revenue of $131.2 million in November, the highest of any month. For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, ticket revenue was $1.37 billion, up 11 percent over the 2005 fiscal year.”
Notably absent is how much we taxpayers forked over to fund the difference between “reported revenue” and actual costs.
This year, somewhere around $4.00 per person, maybe $8.00 per taxpayer.
You fellas might be right! Probably more right than we’d like to think. Amtrak’s going to have a rough time, between a hostile administration and a possibly more hostile congress, that wants to fight with the administration, and use Amtrak as a pawn.[banghead]
Well, most of that hostile administration is gone…democrats are back in. And it is because of thise democrats, commuter rail in the bay area is expanding, and funding is possible. ( ie - jackie spear and the baby bullet service for caltrain )
Whew! Glad to hear that. Eight dollars is a drop in the bucket based on what the average taxpayer puts into the pot every year.
I can’t think of anything better I could do with that $8 a year to ensure Amtrak is available if and when I need it. And I’m also happy to support Metra and the CTA in case I ever need them too.
And all of that $8.00 stays in the United States, and creates jobs in the United States, and some of it goes back to various Governments through taxes.
Yes, absolutely. Some complainers make it sound like those tax dollars [supporting public rail transportation] are being flushed down a toilet.
…I believe we can mostly agree it takes some kind of adding to the transportation pot to make it work regardless what mode of it it is…
If 8 dollars is close to the right figure as mentioned above, that’s not much. I’d gladly pay that to make it work and perhaps just a bit more to really make it work.
Drop in the bucket for sure if the figure I heard just recently is true…It was near $30,000 per person or was it per tax payer…can’t really remember…{our portion of the total nation dept.}, which ever is correct gives us an idea where we stand…
And all of that $8.00 stays in the United States, and creates jobs in the United States, and some of it goes back to various Governments through taxes.
Yeah right! Hawker Sidley and Bombadier for equipment made in Canada blows that argument. I’d also like to see some justification for the $8.00 figure. A mere $8.00 for this pork project and that pork project. Pretty soon it adds up. Give me my eight bucks and I will decide what form of transportation I want to use it on.
…With that thought of retrieving the 8 dollars here and there they probably would have to park the airplanes too.
Keeping in mind, of course, that we reached the $30,000 figure by adding up a lot of $8 projects year after year (with accrued interest helping along the way).
…Yes, I understand that is true…But don’t we want a few things extablished and built or updated, whatever…in this country for us as well.
We sure have spent a bunch {and that over the years too}, trying to secure and establish for others.
How much does Amtrak spend yearly on new equipment from the Canadian companies you mention? My guess is that figure – compared to the total operating cost – is relatively insignificant to the total Amtrak operating cost.
And as long as we’re continuing to use the $8 or $30,000 numbers being tossed around here, I’d like to see the source of those figures. Thank you.
Here are the numbers I used to come up with the 8 bucks. US population is a tad over 300 million and I conservatively figured about half, 150 million are taxpayers. Take a $1.2 billion grant to Amtrak divided by the number of taxpayers and you have the $8 figure. I think the $30,000 may be the every man, women and child share of the federal debt.
Here is a way you could figure your own share of the Amtrak grant. The $1.2 billion is somewhere around 1 tenth of 1% of the total federal budget. Pull out your tax return, look for the line that says Total Tax and multiply that number by .001. I don’t know about anybody else, but if my taxes were reduced by my share of the Amtrak grant, the savings to me wouldn’t fill my gas tank.
By the way, the $1.50 person mentioned by Kummant as the part for the long distance service is what is being spent to cover the roughly $450 operating losses. About $250 million goes for interest on the Amtrak debt and the balance is for capitol improvements, much of it into the NEC.
Popa:
…In my mention of the $30,000 figure I did mention I had recently seen that figure published and didn’t remember where, etc…It wasn’t in a rag sheet though…It was some kind of discussion of National finances, etc…
I guess I have trouble swallowing that figurin’
The first big question would be how do you know that half of the population pays taxes?
Anyhoo, your figuring hardly qualifies as a solid number.
And the justfication that it is ‘only eight dollars’ has been used for a great many projects in our neck of the woods. Pretty soon it adds up to ‘only 30 percent’ of your income. You could probably build your own gas station after a coulple of years with that kind of money.
Here is the figurin’. I’ll try to keep it simple.
A few months ago the US Census Bureau said that the population of the US went over 300 million. I was not correct on my first post. The Amtrak grant for 2006 was $1.3 billion. Divide $1,300,000,000 by 300,000,000 people and you have
Your rough-guesstimate figures make sense. Thanks.
By your figures, my personal Amtrak contribution represents 0.0009 of my last tax bill. Which reinforces my thinking that it is a drop in the bucket.
PZ
I rounded the numbers up because it certainly doesn’t amount to very much for an individual. I might add that the $1.50 per person figure thrown out by Kummant just about covers that portion of the grant specificly marked for operating expenses. The actual total number was $485 million for operating expense, admittedly most going for the long distance trains.
There might be reasons to argue against the funding of Amtrak, but I don’t consider money as one.