Robert Heller  wrote:
>At Wed, 9 Nov 2016 20:18:52 -0600 Larry Sheldon  wrote:
>>On 11/9/2016 16:06, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

>>>What will happen to Amtrak as a result of the election, Trump as
>>>president and a Republican congress?  Republicans hate Amtrak.

>>Actually, what we hate is pissing money down gopher holes.

>>Our guess is, if anybody wanted Amtrak, some entrepreneur would be
>>making a million at it.

>No, actually it does not work like that. Sometimes the "Free Enterprise"
>system simply fails. In fact the "Free Enterprise" / "Private Sector" is
>*notoriously* bad at any kind of infrastructure. *Non* of the infrastructure
>*anywhere* in the world and at any time was ever build by the Private Sector
>alone. Much of the construction of the existing *freight* railroad
>infrastructure was funded by the federal government (in the form of land
>grants in the latter part of the 1800s).

Even where there were no land grants, stock subscriptions were sold along
the route, either to individuals or sometimes the town as a whole.

I don't agree with your blanket statement though. (I'm certainly not
agreeing with Larry Sheldon.) There were no land grants from the federal
government prior to the Illinois Central. A few of the railroads near
the eastern seaboard were built with some form of local and state subsidy
(including land grants), but it wasn't the majority of 'em.

In a number of cases out East, railroads were built to compete against the
heavily subsidized canals or, unsubsidized, to fill in gaps between canals.

Not all the Western transcons were built with land grants: Northern Pacific,
Saint Paul (Milwaukee Road), Western Pacific

I don't think Santa Fe was, but I'm spacing out on it and don't have a
history at hand.

Today, I don't agree that Class 1 main lines are "notoriously" bad at
infrastructure although I don't agree with their aversion to quality customer
service to the dock. Many short lines keep their physical plant in good
condition.

Given the use of certain transit subsidies by municipalized railroads, gah,
let's not criticize the private sector too harshly.

WisDOT wants several hundred million in new infrastructure for three round
trips between Chicago and Milwaukee, together with IDOT and Amtrak.  What
with UP and CP, they've come up with a way to park freight trains until
passenger trains pass in lieu of keeping the whole system moving. There
are no infrastructure heros here.

Chicago is filled with railroad bridges built from the Victorian era
into the 1920s, very overbuilt as railroads assumed steam locomotives
would get massively heavier. Not only was that private sector, but it was
a cross subsidy to traffic on local roads. Thank goodness they were overbuilt
'cuz we don't have subsidies to replace 'em all today.

>The *entire* highway system is
>funded by governments at the local, state, and federal level.  Many airports
>started out as millitary air bases.  The US Airforce has been the primary
>training ground for pilots.

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