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Newsweek: A Deficit of Seriousness (5/16/05) by Robert J. Samuelson
Samuelson decries the fact that rail travel receives federal subsidies:
As for Amtrak, it swallows ever-larger subsidies to provide mediocre service for a small minority of travelers. In fiscal 2005, it's getting $1.2 billion for carrying about 25 million people. By contrast, airlines carried 636 million domestic passengers last year. Without Amtrak, Americans would still get where they want to go.
Oddly, Samuelson fails to mention that air travel is also subsidized: Since the September 11 attacks, according to the U.S. House Aviation Subcommittee, the airline industry has been given "well over $20 billion" in financial relief. The fact that airports (unlike railroad tracks) are publicly owned is another huge subsidy to the airlines; the total value of the airport system was estimated in 1992 at $1 trillion.
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