Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/swiss-baby-adventure-adjustments-part-6-transportation

Comment #2100

2010-09-08T19:53:51Z

The Swiss government put 2.7 billion francs into the SBB last year (http://www.wirtschaft.ch/SBB+Gewinn+von+fast+370+Millionen+Franken/436527/detail.htm). The result: a profit of 370 millions. What I've always heard is that public transport needs subsidies because that's the only way it can compete with cars, and that cars are only that cheap because the price we pay for petrol doesn't reflect the true costs of running a car (e.g. increased costs for housing because parking takes up valuable space, oil runoff into waterways, the occasional Exxon Valdez oil spill, foreign wars, pollution).

Comment #2099

2010-09-08T16:57:43Z

Orlando, too, has been fighting over light rail for years, though it looks as if it might finally happen. There's the good old NIMBY problem, and liability issues, and trying to balance the needs of residents vs. needs of tourists. Not to mention politics. What I'd like to see is an improvement over a bus system that requires me to allocate three hours for a trip to the airport, one that takes only 45 minutes by car. (The walk to the bus stop is 30 minutes each way, and the bus makes many stops on its way to the airport.)

I remember hearing that Washington, D.C.'s Metro system only works because it is subsidized, but I'm no longer sure of statements like that, because they rarely take into account how much car and truck transit is subsidized by the highway system. I'm certain a workable public transit system would have to be heavily subsidized at first, because of the need to break through people's negative feelings towards it. It needs to be clean, attractive, safe, frequent, and fast to attract enough riders to make it pay. It won't ever amount to much until the people on the bus are not just those with no other options. Most of my fellow passengers have been fine, but the loud, profane, drunk, smelly, and just plain crazy people do not encourage people to leave the more controlled environment of their cars. Sure, I've run into such folk in Boston and New York, but there are usually enough other people around to minimize altercations. Orlando needs more "other people."

Comment #2098

2010-09-08T10:54:25Z

I don't know about city transport, but I do know that the trains make money on passenger traffic in Switzerland. Cargo doesn't, but it's subsidized for environmental reasons.

Comment #2097

2010-09-08T00:27:05Z

Are the trams paid for entirely by the fares? A friend who worked on mass transportation in Pittsburgh mentioned offhandedly one time that public transporation always loses money and so is heavily subsidized to make it work.

Pittsburgh's T and bus system, which isn't too bad, I think - not up to bigger city standards, but most people find it reliable enough for commuting purposes, etc. But, I know they get a lot of state funding, as they occasionally have big pushes for writing your representatives when the funding is potentially being cut, etc.

Comment #2096

2010-09-07T13:56:17Z

So true. We can't implement an exact replica of the European solutions because we just don't have the population density, but there is a lot we could do!

I am very frustrated with our city for example; council has been fighting for 25 years over the cost of a rapid transit system. The cost goes up and up as they argue and argue. If they had built it 25 years ago, it would have paid for itself several times over by now!

Comment #2095

2010-09-06T11:44:02Z

I see that Google Reader picked this up before I completed some updates, so those of you reading through a feedreader might want to click through to the real site instead.