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Comment on A new exoskeleton to support workers in railways maintenance and renewal operations
localhost001@lemmy.world 1 year agoFunny you mention Amtrak, as I just yesterday watched this video which shows the current Amtrak experience, explains the history and why it’s currently so far behind the rest of the world. Turns out, it’s been starved of funding from the government for a long time.
PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks [bot] 1 year ago
cedarmesa@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Amtrak is a for profit, private company that happens to also suckle at the public teat. Is it the governments fault this private corporation sucks…perhaps? This is the problem with public/private partnerships like this. You get the worst of both worlds. Private companies get to soak the consumer while also stealing tax money and when they suck balls blame the govt for not giving them even more tax money. Wanna know how well amtrak is doing? Look at ceo pay, profits, and dividends paid out to shareholders.
localhost001@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock.”
“ Yes, your tax dollars (a tiny portion of them, at least) winds up keeping Amtrak trains on the tracks. Amtrak makes a significant portion of its money from ticket sales, but the company could not exist without the help of federal/state subsidies and billions of dollars in grants.
Amtrak typically sees between 1 and 2 billion dollars of federal money come its way each year. That’s roughly equivalent to a few thousandths of the federal government’s budget. If we took a super simple view of our tax bills, we could say that most Americans spend a couple bucks each year to subsidize Amtrak. Obviously, taxes are way more complicated than that, but it’s helpful to think about.
64% of Amtrak’s money comes directly from ticket sales. The rest comes from a combination of other things, most especially subsidies and grants, though investments and other business activities account for significant revenue as well.”
cedarmesa@lemmy.world 1 year ago
TIL. Thanks for the correction.