by Matt Melzer Twenty-one small towns may soon lose all air service under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program due to underperformance. Critics of passenger train subsidies inevitably point to the availability of road and air alternatives (whose subsidies they seldom acknowledge). In the case of aviation, there are myriad tax exemptions and indirect…
I’m always surprised by how many people think that Amtrak ought to operate at a profit and are incredulous when I tell them that all public transportation is subsidized, even—in fact, especially—the airlines. First, sez I, there are the indirect subsidies…meaning when government picks up the tab for something that the airlines must have…
Some of the loonier members of Congress – and, sorry, but just about all of those are Republicans – get their boxer shorts all twisted up in knots when it comes to Amtrak’s annual subsidy. They hate it. They obsess over it. And every year they try to reduce it. This year, a couple of…