From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net

"John Levine"  wrote in message
news:lht20l$h0k$1@miucha.iecc.com...
> >Without revenue from freight operations, the NE corridor is not
> >econmically
>>viable.
>
> Amtrak's NECIP summary says that on a typical day the NEC sees 2300
> passenger trains and 50 freight trains, mostly at night to avoid
> conflicts with passenger traffic.  That's under 2.5% of the trains.
> There is no freight through NY or Baltimore due to the tunnels.
>
> A table on cost sharing says that of the $431 million of shared
> infrastructure costs, $20M is attributable to freight, $258M to
> Amtrak, and $153M to commuter rail.  Cross-subsidization is
> specifically prohibited, so freight pays its 4.6% share of costs.
> Freight trains are much longer and heavier than passenger trains, so
> it makes sense that the fraction of costs would be higher than the
> relative number of trains.
>
> The NECIP plan says freight will continue to be important, but because
> shippers need the capacity and there's no room on the parallel
> highways, not because Amtrak needs the money.
>
> --
> Regards,
> John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for
> Dummies",
> Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly

Amtrak DOES need the money.  Freight service used to always subsdize
passenger service in the "good old days."

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