They seem busy often and have high fares.
I single out the Post Office for two reasons. First, from the USPS perspective I'm little more than a passive product they can sell to junk mail advertisers with or without my consent. The second issue is that by law no private enterprise is allowed to undercut their ludicrously inefficient parcel shipping. Private companies are still free to undercut Amtrak with better service at lower prices without running afoul of the law, so I even if I hated passenger rail I wouldn't have the same ideological issues with Amtrak as I do with the USPS.Why are the Post Office and Amtrak singled out and expected to make a profit when they are also Government Services?
This was done because Congress didn't want a situation where the often-mismanaged US Postal Service would ignore their pension obligations in order to "balance the books" and show a rosier financial status to the extent that the government would be called upon to bail out their pension fund.The law states the Post Office MUST fully-fund its pensions 70 years in ADVANCE!! Therefore, since most People retire between 60 and 67 years old, the politicians required the Post Office to provide pay every year fully-funded pensions for people who HAVE NOT YET BEEN BORN!!!!! (FedEx, UPS, and other private companies don't have to do this).
The US Postal Service isn't really a good example of an government entity for the purposes of this discussion. It operates as a private company with government oversight and monopolistic business practices. Then there's the issue with its overall function as an origination-to-destination courier, which many in logistics say is outmoded as well as inefficient.I single out the post office because they force absurd amounts of physical junk mail on me (you are not a customer of the USPS, you are the product they sell to others) and by law no private enterprise is allowed to undercut their ludicrously inefficient pricing. Other companies are still free to undercut Amtrak with lower prices and better service without running afoul of the law.
The US Postal Service isn't really a good example of an government entity for the purposes of this discussion. It operates as a private company with government oversight and monopolistic business practices. Then there's the issue with its overall function as an origination-to-destination courier, which many in logistics say is outmoded as well as inefficient
Not that I am in favor of making any serious changes in Amtrak without setting up a governance framework to govern and regulate passenger railroads first, but there is a bit of hyperbole going on here.If we did privatize the post office and Amtrak, what we would get is worse service and higher costs in the few areas they'd survive in. All while workers get their pensions raided and pay likely cut.
Not that I am in favor of making any serious changes in Amtrak without setting up a governance framework to govern and regulate passenger railroads first, but there is a bit of hyperbole going on here.
Amtrak is already structured as and to quite an extent run more as a private enterprise than a government department and we are already getting some of the blowback from it. Either way it will need continued funding from the government.
I doubt that Amtrak as a pure private company like the rest of the railroad industry will be able to escape the clutches of the Railroad Retirement System in the US, so pensions won't go away anywhere, unless somehow that fate befalls the entire railroad industry. It would be an as earthshaking a change as Social Security disappearing. It could happen to the entire industry, but unlikely to happen just to Amtrak.
Why do the interstates lose money? They are always so crowded!
(They do, gas tax doesn’t cover it.)
cut snow removal
It would be interesting to know what it actually costs for each route ...
How much does it actually cost to run the SM from MIA to NYP?
There are shared expenses between different trains/routes. These do have an impact on the bottom line for Amtrak as a whole. Some of these would include the crews involved in maintenance and turning the trains, Station costs, training costs for the train crews.
For the individual train, how much does the fuel cost to run the route? Pay the employees on THAT train. Pay for the use of the track. Any other expenses, not counting food, that the individual train incurs when running from termination to termination?
If we had a breakdown of these expenses it might be easier to see just where the money goes and what steps might make the most sense to fix the problem. After all, cutting the wrong expenses does not increase profits.
I'd imagine there are plenty of private companies that would be happy to take over the job of stuffing my poor mailbox with endless advertising. That being said, in the case of a private company a city-to-city letter might cost as little as 10¢ for overnight delivery while a rural-to-rural letter might require a $10 stamp for delivery in two weeks. That's bad news for 20% of Americans but good news for the other 80%.Similar to Amtrak no private company would want the USPS mission.
fgalse analogy. Amtrakcompetes with other transportation modes. Those don't.That's the thing ...
Why are the Post Office and Amtrak singled out and expected to make a profit when they are also Government Services?
- The Secret Service does not make a profit
- The Military does not make a profit
- The US Highway System does not make a profit
- The Senate does not make a profit
- Congress does not make a profit
- The White House does not make a profit
- Many Government Programs (like those for the poor) do not make a profit
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