[bombcar]

Amtrak has an extensive bus line to extend their reach - and they can't sell you a ticket on it unless it includes a train segment.

[rhino369]

We don't need a subsidized government run bus line, the private ones work fine.

[bombcar]

To be fair, all bus lines are government subsidized, unless one somewhere has built their own roads - maybe the Disney shuttle?

[monsieurbanana]

How many businesses are not government subsidised, if we follow your logic?

[zeckalpha]

Now you are onto it!

[majewsky]

Exactly.

[Mountain_Skies]

In theory fuel taxes and registration taxes on the buses should cover their share of that cost but the math becomes tricky when you start trying to calculate the time and space value of different road segments.

[kube-system]

I thought this until I tried to book a ticket recently and found that megabus had cancelled the route I wanted to use entirely.

[ghaff]

Just because a private bus company canceled a route doesn't mean that the government would (or perhaps should) operate routes that don't meet some metric of popularity.

[kube-system]

It is very common for governments to operate or subsidize unprofitable public transport routes in the name of accessibility.

[ghaff]

Yes, but they invariably draw the line somewhere.

[katbyte]

except they clearly don't? especially in places that need to be connected but will never be profitable.

UK tried it with rail and it didn't go so well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlTq8DbRs4k

[zeckalpha]

They are often subcontracted to the private companies.

[kingkawn]

Broad ideologically motivated dismissals of entire avenues of problem solving seem suspect at best

[rhino369]

I would characterize the Amtrak support as ideologically motivated solutions in search of a problem.

Other than the NE lines, Amtrak is a pet project.