Re: (erielack) 1962 Eastern Airlines Subsidy Request

["Tom Beckett" <tabeckett_@_stny.rr.com>]

I don't know which is worse, but both are to the detriment of a more
efficient means of transportation than what the railroads' taxes went to
support. Even the local taxes fostered growth of the highway system: better
local roads meant better access to the larger network, which meant more road
vehicles, so of course, more and bigger roads...

As I watch the administration fiddle while starving out Amtrak, yet at the
same time, feed billons to the airline industry, I wonder, what's changed in
40 years? Meanwhile, the roads and airways get more congested. Passenger
rail is not the answer to every transportation need, but a balanced approach
to useful regional rail networks could go a long way. It doesn't have to be
"high speed", as long as it's reasonable speed, and with enough frequency to
be convenient.

Recently, there have been several proposals to get passenger trains to
Binghamton. It's a nice idea, but the reality is that at this point in
history, Binghamton is not a destination people are clamoring to get to(I
smell a weasel deal in the politics of this, but that's another story). At
some point in the next ten years, Scranton will likely have passenger trains
via the Cutoff. While I realize progress is often incremental, it would seem
to me that a more practical and useful approach would be to go for Buffalo,
and connections with the rest of whatever remains of the Amtrak system. The
politics of dealing with three states, the freight roads, the Feds, NIMBYs,
etc., will make this a long term project. Even then, it will take $3/gallon
gas to get people out of their cars, and off all those roads, built with all
that free money from the Feds...

I don't know if we'd have a double track EL with high speed passenger trains
from Hoboken to Chicago, but we'd at least be able to get to Buffalo or NY
City in a reasonable amount of time to connect with another train and then
get back, without having such unpleasantly long connections as to make the
rail option a non starter. On the whole, I have to agree with Henry's
"rant". The transportation picture might look vastly different today had the
heavy hand of government not been tilting the scale against the rail
industry.

Tom B
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken" <lackawanna_@_iname.com>
To: "Blue Moon Network Administrator" <root_@_net.bluemoon.net>; "Erie
Lackawanna Mail List" <erielack_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 4:31 PM
Subject: Re: (erielack) 1962 Eastern Airlines Subsidy Request


> Which is worse?  Federal subsidies of airports/air traffic control and
> highways or local property taxation of railroad rights-of-way?
>
>
> Ken B,
>
> At 11:18 AM 5/21/02 -0400, Blue Moon Network Administrator wrote:
>
>
> >What's this have to do with the EL? It's in the E-L Aug/Sep 1962 company
> >magazine!
> >
> >Came across this while doing the issue with the guy who looks like
Smiley,
> >it's the lead item in the "T E-L L-A-GRAM" section on page 4:
> >
> >
> >
> >A SUBSIDY OF $23,869,051 has been requested by Eastern Air Lines from the
> >Federal government to cover "indicated needs for the balance of the
fiscal
> >year." Eastern said its calculations showed that amount would be needed
to
> >produce "the 9 per cent return allowed by the Civil Aeronautics Board in
other
> >subsidy cases." (Erie-Lackawanna needed $26,488,759 just to break even
last
> >year but did not ask the taxpayers for a subsidy to make up its losses.
> >Reason: no such subsidy provisions are made for railroads.)
> >
> >
> >
> >The more I find out about the governments' subsidizing of the railroads'
> >competitors with railroad tax dollars while regulating the railroads to
> >death, the more disgusted I become.
> >
> >Has anyone ever sued the federal government on behalf of railroad
> >stockholders?
> >
> >If you look at what the feds did to the railroads from 1900 to 1983 it
looks
> >like a fairly (unfairly!) clear-cut case of confiscation of wealth. It
> >obviously cast aside the "Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness" which
was
> >guaranteed by our forefathers when applied to railroad stockholders.
> >
> >Reading the company mags for the last 8 years of its life can be
depressing
> >when you see how unbelievably oppressive our goverments (Federal, State
and
> >Municipal) were to the railroads. Until a year or so ago I hadn't thought
of
> >pre-1970 government as being so much the bleeding heart liberal sort, but
> >studying railroad regulation and taxation since then has really opened my
> >eyes. I used to think of myself as far too biased to be objective in the
> >railroads vs. government debate, but I realize now that what the
government
> >did to the railroads was far worse than I had ever imagined.
> >
> >The criminal inequities perpetrated upon the railroads by the goverment
is
> >just mind-boggling. We are left with but a shadow of that which we love
> >because our "protectors" destroyed it with malice aforethought. We are a
> >country of fools and deserve the cesspool in which we live today, for we
> >built it ourselves.
> >
> >"I love my country, I'm terrified of my government."
> >
> >We'd have a high speed, double tracked EL from Hoboken to Chicago today
if it
> >weren't for them.
> >
> >Our goverments have harmed our country far worse than any terrorists ever
> >could.
> >
> >Sorry for the rant,
> >
> >Henry
> >
> >J. Henry Priebe Jr.       Blue Moon President & Network Administrator
> >root_@_bluemoon.net         www.bluemoon.net - Blue Moon Internet Corp
> >V.90, X2 & K56flex        www.railfan.net  - The Railfan Network
> >
> >
> >
> >
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