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Senator: Amtrak should pay more in Connecticut
How about just giving Amtrak that section of the NEC, unifying control of the line, at least till south of Boston which is owned by Massachusetts.
Those tracks are owned by Metro-North, and therefore maintained by metro-north. Because Metro-North is operated by the state, it is the state’s responsiblity to pay for the maintenance, not Amtrak’s. Amtrak has trackage rights over the line, and is required to pay a royality to use that. By that logic, cars should “pay more” to drive on city roads, since drivers operate on roads not owned by them.
Bloomenthal actually said something that makes sense. I guess every now and then a socialist has a bad day and starts thinking normal.
Amtrak should pay for the track it is using. After all, it is wearing and tearing up those tracks just as much as the state’s trains. Claiming that Amtrak should not pay would be the same as repealing the fuel taxes paid by automobiles, buses, and trucks. Wait a minute. There’s an idea. Make Amtrak equal to highway users by eliminating the fuel taxes, licensing, and other government fees. While we are at it, let’s get rid of that pesky airport gate fee which the airlines have to pay for each use. This all makes so much more sense when I start thinking like the average passenger train foamer.
Except for the fact that the rails that the incident took place on are under Metro North control, not Amtrak.
As long as users do not pay the full cost of providing any type of service, the service continually will face funding problems. One answer is higher fares and subsidized privatization that encourages and provides the most efficient operation.
I guess that this is CONnecticut’s way of getting back for the federal government order to pay for Amtrak service. But, why should Amtrak have to pay for Metro North’s screw up?!
Sounds like a “red herring” to me. The real question is why the track defect wasn’t repaired 2 days after it was detected (or why the joint broke)! Also, was a slow order in place?
United States National Arboretum view of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
@JEFFERY GUSE - That’s a great idea! We should also charge car drivers by the mile for road usage, eliminate all subsidies for roads, abolish zoning codes that require businesses subsidize roads, eliminate property taxes for railroads, and so on.
Be careful what you wish for. If the playing fields had been levelled in the 1950s, Amtrak wouldn’t exist.
But Penn Central would. And we’d be riding PC trains to go to work.
I wonder how much the Interstate highways pay Connecticut for their use?
I wonder how much the Interstate highways pay Connecticut for their use?
By far the main user of the tracks is Metro-North. They have a much more intense operation than Amtrak does. And they control the dispatching of the line as far as New Haven, often causing delays to Amtrak.
BTW, if this is an article about Amtrak in Connecticut why is there a picture of an Acela at Wilmington, DE?
And let’s not forget that Shore Line East runs trains EAST of New Haven to New London, as well as WEST to Stamford on the line.