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I know Jacksonville, Florida has one - people mover or something. I lived there and the system wasn't used very much, but just on the measure of costs it is really really cheap. Probably from the simple fact that they can take out the most expensive element - the human driver. Which in turn also generally makes them safer (statistically speaking
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Was there something else to actually reply to? Stating lines are profitable or at least break even just sort of proves the point that it is ABSOLUTELY feasible. We have the technology, we have the reasons to do so, why do we allow continued waste to be incurred in highly subsidized system (i.e. highways, US passenger rail as it exists)... It IS truly
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[quote user=" anmccaff "]I don't think we need to argue about fixing the final details[/quote] People commonly misunderstand the problems of the system before, and the positives of the system before, so often times they apply a solution that can't or won't solve anything. The details must be known to the policy makers, and even
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Point being, passenger rail isn't unprofitable because it's worthless, but because of market manipulations by external forces of to the industry. You state that people don't make simple market decisions, but if they paid full price - just the fluctuations of a mere few percentage points of difference in gas price prove this - they would
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" The freight railroads were losing money on passenger service but were required to provide it. " They weren't initially required to provide it. They did because they made money on the service or by destination end points - i.e. hotels etc. The reason it is a net loss activity now is solely because of the way the Government interferes