Guest Editorial: Are Taxpayer Subsidized Commuter Railroads Justified?

(Note:  This subject of subsidizing rail lines is auspicious, because Lake County Governments recently voted to spend over $16.5-million in taxpayer funds to repair CSX privately owned rail lines in Lake County to facilitate commuter and freight rail operations without any reports showing facts to justify the expense - see our separate posts on this. VJ)

From Richard Riker   3/21/2011

In December of 2009 Florida Legislature passed legislation by 27-10 establishing Sun Rail. This was done in a special session in an Obama-Pelosi hush and rush style. Why was this done in the “dead of night” without public disclosure? Simple, it would not have passed in the light of day. An initial impact of the passage was, as in most cases, financial, the legislature paid CSX Rail $10.5 million for track. This total is far more that the national average cost for track at $500,000 per mile.

What are some of the other overall deterrents to rail transit? Ones that our legislatures should have considered before they voted for it. To begin with, and maybe foremost, only

two rail lines in the entire world have recovered their capital cost Paris-Lyon and Tokyo-Osaka. No rail transit line in this country comes close to covering its' operating costs. Average light-rail fares cover less than 30 percent of operating costs. Transit fares have not contributed a single penny to rail capital costs for at least 60 years(National Transit Database, Federal Dept. of Transportation) Close to home we have Tri-Rail which has been operating in the Miami area for over 20 years and still needs $13 to $15 million tax payer dollars each year to survive. For that amount of money cars could be rented at $199 per month each year for each passenger.

Sun-Rails' estimated ridership also needs to be called into question. For one reason or another, per capita transit ridership has declined in a majority of urban regions that have rail transit. (National Transit Database). The causes are complex but the initiating factor for the decline of train ridership can be traced to the 1930s with the building of national highways which gave the American public the chance to be free of railroad tethers.

How necessary is rail transit? Amtrak, the largest rail line in the U.S. operating 44 lines, of which 41 lose money, carries 1 tenth of 1% of passenger traffic each day. It could close tomorrow and due to the overall small amount of people is services it would not be missed.( CATO Institute).

Time and time again I hear the bogus argument that we subsidize roads with our tax dollars why not railroads. It's a fact that tax dollars go for building and maintaining roads. However the one defining reason for this use of tax dollars for roads and not railroads is “Everyone” uses roads, only an overall few people use trains. Try taking a train to the supermarket or the hospital. No track, no go.

Now we come to a very serious reasons train transit may be being pushed by the Federal government.

When the bill passed the House Committee, Representative Aubuchon declared "now we can shift the population density where it is appropriate.": According to whom?  The UN?  Under the UN's "Agenda 21" philosophy, control of the population is a essential issue. How better to control population than to have it clustered around rail lines as in Europe. Very scarey , but not a conspiracy theory, a conspiracy fact.

Richard Riker

(Richard is active in the North Lake County Tea Party (Florida))

Rick Riker [[email protected]] 

Editor's note: 

Here are article links about the recent decision by OC Commission to give taxpayer $$ to private rail line:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-03-08/news/os-orange-lake-rail-fixes-20110308_1_rail-line-commuter-rail-orange-leaders

http://www.dailycommercial.com/022311lakecountyrail

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/money/030811-taxpayers-to-foot-bill-on-upgrading-private-rail

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