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Comment by scyclow | Hacker News Reader

I don't know the numbers, but I'd be shocked if air and bus lost as much money per trip as trains. Part of what makes the train appealing for the longer rides is that if you're taking coach half of the car is empty and you know you won't have to sit next to anyone.

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> I don't know the numbers, but I'd be shocked if air and bus lost as much money per trip as trains.

Just a thought, but if you're interested in numbers, it's an eye-opener to look at how much money airlines have lost for shareholders, bondholders, and the government via bankruptcies. If passenger rail was ever capable of tearing chunks out of the economy the way the airlines are, it must have been a century ago.

From 2011: "The industry in aggregate has lost about $60 billion over the 32 years since deregulation"

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/12/16/143765367/why-...

I'm pretty sure airlines are one of those unusual industries in the US (like banking) that have throughout their existence lost more money than they've ever actually generated in profit and have been kept whole by the government. Sorry I don't have any hard figures on that.

It's also worth considering that the American government has massively subsidized the airline industry. Trillions of dollars in defense spending for aircraft has propped up Boeing and its predecessors during hard times. That spending massively advanced civilian aircraft. Training pilots is another massive cost, which is mitigated by former American military pilots.

Keep in mind that bus travel is extremely heavily subsidized in the form of the government handling maintenance of the national highway system

How do you define "loss" in this context?

Net loss. So, if a ticket costs $10, and it costs the bus an average $12 per passenger, they'd have a $2 loss per passenger.

But in terms of comparisons. That metric is really difficult to define for a roadway or an entire network of airports and the transit systems that connect them to cities.

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