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Isn’t profitable means they can’t enshittify it.
Capitalist: hold my beer.
This is precisely why US public transport is stuck in the 1800s. And why EU public transport is stuck in 1950s.
All while China has public transport from 2030s and nearly more subway railways (by total length) than the rest of the world combined. Of course, this is not meant to glaze China. Just to give credit for building public transport without a profit incentive.
It’s worse than the 1800s. We used to have an expansive rail network. We had, at the peak, 400,000 or so miles of rail in the US. Today there is less than 140,000 miles of rail. Less than half of what we used to have. Sure, we’ve got more buses and light rail like subway, but overall it’s still a loss in total miles.
“it’s not profitable”
“that’s ok, I’m not looking to make profit, I’m willing to ride it for free.”
When people say public transport isn’t profitable they conveniently seem to forget all the subsidies and tax exemptions the alternatives receive
Mass transportation should drop the pretenses of being a business and stop demanding a fare from people riding it.
That would solve a lot of problems, and make the system way cheaper.
Exactly. We don’t expect freeways to be profitable.
yup. make it a government service.
Neoliberals: Correct. That’s why the only possible way to have HSR is if you give the railroads infinite land to develop and interest free loans. Then if you’re lucky, they’ll subsidize the unprofitable railroads by renting out the most expensive land in the city as exorbitant rates! Or maybe they’ll cut rail service and raise ticket prices anyway! Shame there’s no alternative.
A nice private-public partnership, with a contract guaranteeing profits for the private investors and the public pays for it through taxes.
Are roads profitable?
There’s probably some fancy model somewhere that can estimate net revenue from a specific road.
I’m sure there are unprofitable roads - the roads that are constantly fucked up all the time!
if they’re toll roads
Ugh, drivers hate those
IS this accurate, though?
Anyone who lives in or knows Europe is well aware that it’s much cheaper and faster to fly over HSR on that continent. If you have time and don’t feel like dealing with airports/planes, the train is a preferable option, but it comes at more cost.Isn’t Airplane Kerosene heavily subsidized here? I feel like trains would be cheaper if they were given a fair chance.
Airplane fuel is basically untaxed worldwide due to the Chicago convention. But also infrastructure costs for HSR are very high and scale with distance whereas the opposite is true for planes.
Sounds plausible. I’ve no idea.
In Germany, HSR also has to pay fees to use the rails (while cars get to use roads for free). Plus there is always a push to make it profitable, which results in constant rising prices.
Vote with your wallet! Destroy something an auto industry shill loves today!
Organs pets and spouses do count.
Are you advocating destroying someone’s pets or spouses because they like cars?
I meant more like lobbyists advertisers execs. Not like ‘i restore mid century hot rods’.
I remember watching some videos about the rail in Japan. The rail itself wasn’t really profitable, but the rail company also own the land around the exits. Because of more sane zoning laws, it can actually be used too. And they make fuckin bank leasing out that prime real estate.
Which is why Shinkansen tickets are like 5x more expensive than in China. Also why every city has like 10 different transit companies with transfers that can mean “walk 2 blocks on the surface”. Under capitalism, the ideal railroad makes infinite money while running zero trains and owning zero infrastructure. You literally need to use legal means to get them to deviate from this.
Say what you will but their train system works smooth like butter. When I visited I used the local metro around Tokyo and it was very affordable. Didn’t get a chance to ride the Shinkansen though so no direct comment on that.
Say what you will
okay the Japanese train system is dangerous for women. You gonna get sexually assaulted. who cares if it runs on time. THE RAPE TRAIN IS PUNCTUAL YAY. why are we looking at japan for public transit ideas?
Hentai doesn’t equate to real life, you know?
you can’t possibly be that dense. wait, this is lemmy, you are probably arguing for more rape trains
