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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (383162)	5/7/2008 7:48:05 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1570940

If one looks at airlines as an industry, they have NEVER, EVER since day one, been profitable. It is, inherently, a money-losing business. There are a few exceptions (SW, for example), but for the most part, they simply cannot and have not made money. Since 1978, there have been more than 100 airlines file for bankruptcy -- including biggies like Braniff, Continental, Air Florida, Frontier, Eastern, Braniff (again), PanAm, Eastern (again), US Airways, many, many others. These companies benefit from huge government subsidies in the form of airports. SW is profitable today only because of smart wager on increasing fuel costs; they couldn't come close to doing what they're doing today without the cheaper fuel they're getting. Once the infrastructure expenditure for high-speed rail is made, with a reasonable arrangement of hubs, intercity transportation could become very cheap. As it turns out, CJ's $100 Billion pricetag for Dallas-Houston was a tad high. (I guess economics wasn't one of his strong suits ;)). The "Texas Triangle" plan would have put a privately financed high-speed rail line between Houston/Austin/Dallas at a cost of $5.6 Billion. Apparently, they never got the private funding for it. It is ridiculous that we are still bankrolling airlines which are a bloated, outmoded, costly, uncomfortable form of transportation. I fly no more than 5-10 times annually, and I just hate it -- not because of the hassle, but because I don't want to spend the money for First Class. If you have ever traveled in the Midwest on Amtrak, it is sheer luxury compared to airlines -- but they are too slow. Hell, you could increase the ridership for Amtrak by reducing the number of stops. Here's an example -- the Texas daily train stops in Malvern -- which is a few miles from where I live -- at 4am -- I can guarantee you there isn't one passenger getting on or off most days. And it stops is Arkadelphia, too. Just DUMB.