New terminal station under development in Bangkok:https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/asia/single-view/view/four-storey-bangkok-bang-sue-station-takes-shape.html …
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My mind got scrambled and I read that as Beijing. But the conventional thinking in West is rail can only be successful if run by governments, financed by taxes, and cover short distances. China defying those beliefs.
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Certainly conventional thinking in the West is that rail can only be successful if run by gov, financed by taxes...but overwhelmingly Westerners think rail is for long range, intercity travel--they routinely neglect suburban and regional travel
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...also China's HSR is 100% tax financed and run by the government (well, by state-owned enterprises)
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Yes, state-owned company. But not run by or sustained by government. What PRC does - like any owner - is it gives the company the seed money, then company is expected to support itself financially. Also much if not all of that seed money came from the other SOEs, not tax money.
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For operations, maybe--but certainly not for construction of new lines
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Private companies built almost every mile of track in the US. When when Amtrak runs on them it’s like their throw money into the furnace.
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Yes, occasionally with free land etc from the gov, but they generally raised their own money. But that was when trains were the *only* way to go long distances at speed--it's much tougher to find investors for something like that now.
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Real estate acquisition is a marginal cost in rail construction. But those rails still exist. Amtrak doesn’t have to do a thing but lease or maintain them, and they can’t seem to do it.
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