NYC Niagara 4-8-4 - Anderson

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Roger Hensley

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Mar 27, 2002
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1954 Ron Stuckey Photo - Anderson NYC Passenger
NYC Niagara 4-8-4 6005(?) leads a passenger train downtown Anderson

an_nyc1.jpg
 
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Russ Bellinis

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Feb 13, 2003
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nkp174 said:
It is an express train...which is what paid the bills for the passenger trains.
Click to expand...

The only reason for the creation of AmTrak was that the government took the mail off the trains and sent all mail by air in the continental U.S. The railroads lost the revenue that paid for passenger service. Unfortunately, now we face the problem of ignorant lawmakers who think we should abolish all public support of railroads because, according to them in their ignorance passenger trains are the only form of transportation that receives government subsidies. They just don"t know who pays for highways and airports, or they know and are lying to us. Since a politician would NEVER lie, I must assume they are just plain ignorant.
 
nkp174

nkp174

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Russ Bellinis said:
Unfortunately, now we face the problem of ignorant lawmakers who think we should abolish all public support of railroads because, according to them in their ignorance passenger trains are the only form of transportation that receives government subsidies. They just don"t know who pays for highways and airports, or they know and are lying to us. Since a politician would NEVER lie, I must assume they are just plain ignorant.
Click to expand...

:agree1:
 
brakie

brakie

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Russ Bellinis said:
The only reason for the creation of AmTrak was that the government took the mail off the trains and sent all mail by air in the continental U.S. The railroads lost the revenue that paid for passenger service. Unfortunately, now we face the problem of ignorant lawmakers who think we should abolish all public support of railroads because, according to them in their ignorance passenger trains are the only form of transportation that receives government subsidies. They just don"t know who pays for highways and airports, or they know and are lying to us. Since a politician would NEVER lie, I must assume they are just plain ignorant.
Click to expand...

Russ,It started with that big lie that was told by many way back during the the creation of Amtrak...
That lie? That passenger trains could make money and Amtrak would be self sufficient by the mid-80s.
 
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Russ Bellinis

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Feb 13, 2003
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brakie said:
Russ,It started with that big lie that was told by many way back during the the creation of Amtrak...
That lie? That passenger trains could make money and Amtrak would be self sufficient by the mid-80s.
Click to expand...

I sometimes think the mistake was allowing the freaight railroads to give up passenger service instead of the government subsidising the existing passenger service. If the government was subsidising passenger service for all of the class 1 railroads, they would have a lot more difficulty just dropping the support. It would be like the government deciding to quit subsidising airports and air traffic control. If the airlines were suddenly told that they were going to have to pay 100% of the cost to operate and maintain the airports and the air traffic control services, two things would immediately happen. #1 the cost of a coach class airline ticket from LA to NY would cost $3,000.00-$5,000.00 each. #2 all of the airlines would probably go bankrupt.

By creating Amtrak and putting unrealistic expectations in place, the government has poised itself to get rid of passenger service.
 
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