What is the proportion between air, rail and road?

Question

As far as government subsidies are concerned.(US)

I need kind of a mental picture.

Answer 1

Railroads are NOT subsidized as trucks and airlines and barge companies are.

They are in fact penalized, they pay taxes on all their property in each county they operate in.

They are taxed on all their equipment and the development of that equipment, no one does it for them

When a peice of railroad track needs rebuilding the railroad itself has to do that, no one does it for them like we do with highways.

That is one reason railroads have had a very hard time competing in many markets, they are not subsidized and are in fact penalized.

It is true that Amtrak pays railroads a fee for using their tracks but it is not a subsidy, in fact it is usually a break even deal for the railroads at best. Most railroads would be much happier if they did not have to deal with Amtrak.

As for the rest of your question, I am sorry but I really dont know much about the other categories. I do remember seeing a report a few years back from the department of transportation that said the average over the road truck pays approximately 70% of the actual road damage it causes through fuel and other taxes. If that is still applilcable then we could assume that roughly 30% of trucking industry costs are subsidized.

Answer 2

Richard,

I don't have hard numbers to give you but, while subsidies for rail have improved a little in recent years overall it is still well behind airlines and highways by several billion dollars.

Answer 3

Fortunately there's much more air, what with people breathing it and all...