Very gracious man. I’ve had Placido Domingo on several flights with his wife, Marta. Enjoyed talking with them. Kind couple.

The Federal Highway Trust Fund, and the Aviation Fund are funded by their respective users, but the amount of funds expended by these funds are not the only expenditures by the federal, state and local governments for roads and aviation. The simple fact is that considerable general tax revenue helps fund all these transportation modes. None of these transportation modes could operate without their sizable subsidies.

In particular, Amtrak sufferred from having to run specific highly unprofitable routes required of them by the Federal government to get funding. While those requirements were finally lifted, members of the US Congress have made it clear that if Amtrak didn’t keep running many of their unprofitable routes their funding would be substantially cut.

By the way Carrie, I sent a letter today to NJT thanking them.

In my opinion, the problem with Amtrak is not so much subsidizing fares but having to use scant profits on singular routes to subsidize unneeded and underused service on routes that are not and could not ever be profitable (but are required because a Congressman or Senator demands that a certain route not be dropped).