Infrastructure often is a good thing. Government-financed infrastructure is a questionable thing. Infrastructure financed by Uncle Sam is a bad thing. Those three rules guide my thinking and make for a perfect introduction to this must-watch video from Reason on high-speed rail.
The core message from the video is that Californian’s disastrous experience with high-speed rail should be a warning for the entire nation.
Simply stated, the government is incapable of doing infrastructure without jaw-dropping cost overruns.
But even if – by some impossible miracle – the government spent the money wisely and efficiently, long-distance rail doesn’t make sense.
Why? Well, if I do a tweet-of-the-year contest for 2021, this entry from Rory Cooper would be an early favorite to win the prize.
Instead of expanding the federal government role, it’s time to end Washington’s involvement.
That means shutting down the entire Department of Transportation.
But let’s focus specifically on Amtrak. Chris Edwards wrote wisely on the topic for the Foundation for Economic Education.
The federal government does a lot of things poorly… After the government helped ruin private passenger rail in the post-WWII years, it took over the remaining passenger rail routes in the 1970s under the Amtrak brand. Amtrak was supposed to become self-supporting, but it has consumed tens of billions of taxpayer dollars over the years. …Amtrak operates 44 routes on 21,000 miles of track in 46 states.
Amtrak owns the trains, but freight rail companies own nearly all the track. A Pew analysis found that Amtrak loses money on 41 of its 44 routes… The few routes that earn positive returns are in the Northeast, and the biggest money losers are the long-distance routes. …the best fit for the future would be a privatized Amtrak. Privatization would allow for innovation and cost-cutting to improve service and make rail more financially viable. A private rail company (or companies) could…end harmful union rules. It would be able to close the routes that are losing the most money and shift resources to the core routes to improve service quality. Congress should get out of the passenger rail business and give rail the private-sector flexibility it needs to better compete against other transportation modes.
Amen. If inter-city rail travel makes sense, it can and will attract funding from the private sector.
Sadly, President Biden wants to move in the opposite direction. 
His so-called infrastructure plan makes taxpayers foot the bill.
The White House wants $80 billion for rail, though it’s unclear how much money would be allocated specifically to Amtrak compared to other rail projects.
What is clear, by contrast, is that the money will be wasted and America’s economy will be harmed.
P.S. Biden’s “stimulus” boondoggle included a bailout for mass transit, but no funds for intercity rail travel.
P.P.S. If you’re transportation wonk, here’s a very informative 45-minute video on rail and highway transportation.
International Liberty 
[…] now Biden wants to increase federal subsidies for that money pit, along with other long-distance rail […]
[…] now Biden wants to increase federal subsidies for that money pit, along with other long-distance rail […]
[…] Click here and here to learn more about the boondoggle of government-funded […]
[…] Click here and here to learn more about the boondoggle of government-funded […]
[…] now Biden wants to increase federal subsidies for that money pit, along with other long-distance rail […]
[…] now Biden wants to increase federal subsidies for that money pit, along with other long-distance rail […]
[…] Click here and here to learn more about the boondoggle of government-funded […]
[…] Click here and here to learn more about the boondoggle of government-funded […]
[…] now Biden wants to increase federal subsidies for that money pit, along with other long-distance rail […]
[…] now Biden wants to increase federal subsidies for that money pit, along with other long-distance rail […]
There is an important point which libertarians miss when considering this issue. When traveling long distances, the existing, prevailing option is cars. But the roads on which those car travel, including the interstate highways, are owned and maintained by governments, which use tax revenue for their maintenance. In effect, taxpayers are forced to massively subsidize a demonstrably dangerous, inefficient, and environmentally destructive mode of transportation. If governments stopped taxing people to pay for roads, the private sector could replace them with passenger rail and streetcars under a regulated monopoly, resulting in greatly reduced deaths per passenger-mile and carbon and other emissions.
Anyone who compares the USA to Europe and complains about our lack of train travel options is an idiot and knows nothing about geography to begin with. Europe is a much more densely developed continent where major cities are not all that far apart. Texas is wider than Most of Europe. My point is that our time to save passenger rail was in the 1960’s and guess what? It was not worth saving then. The railroads all abandoned passenger operations almost in unison with the creation of Amtrak which was a hail Mary in an effort for the government to keep it going. I am sure at one time the plan for Amtrak was the same as was for CONRAIL a.k.a. to sell the assets to a private entity someday. CONRAIL succeeded and Amtrak has been an albatross on the nation’s neck ever since it was created and will NEVER PAY FOR ITSELF just like the European trains don’t.
Perhaps someday in the way off future when cars are just not practical a passenger system will evolve that serves as the lynch pin for the masses as the rail passenger system did in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. By then, I would bet rails will not be necessary.
As to Biden’s ‘Gifts to Cronies’ program it never ceases to amaze me how much spin and bluster can come out of the mouths of politicians when their favorite patron is getting paid off. It is all a waste and the proof is that Trump ‘re-energized’ the economy to such an extent not seen in almost 100 years and did not spend hardly a penny of government money, real or monetized borrowing.
[…] The Boondoggle of Long-Distance Passenger Rail […]
High speed rail works for places that have high density populations with a large coincidence of origins and destinations. Further those origins and destination end points must have a highly developed public transit infrastructure. The only place those conditions are met in the U.S. is the Washington – Boston corridor.
The United States cities we founded hundreds of years after the cities of Europe and Asia. The U.S. cities were founded in three regions, East of the Appalachian mountains, between the Appalachian and the Mississippi, and between the Mississippi and the Pacific ocean. Most cities designed west of the Appalachian grew with the car in mind, all cities west of the Mississippi were designed around car transportation.
Also we tried to develop more train corridors in the west. They failed. Why? First was competition with the automobile. Many of those rights of ways have become part of a redevelopment programs called Rails to Trails. The old rights of way are being developed as hiking and biking trails.
High speed rial in the US is a boondoggle of the first order. As a person who has traveled around the world and love the trains of Europe, ridden the Mombassa to Nairobi train and even the high speed maglev train in Shanghai – they are not for the US.
BTW – in the future fly between Nairobi and Mombassa. Really – fly.