• Lv_InSaNe_vL
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    011 days ago

    China’s high speed rail loses enormous amounts of money. Even when you consider the secondary and tertiary economic effects. Even the Chinese government has more or less given up on it.

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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      311 days ago

      All public transit doesn’t make money. Even the United States interstate system hasn’t made a single penny in profit.

      Public transit shouldn’t need to make a profit. It’s cool if it does, but it inherently shouldn’t need to.

      The benefits of making people travel for jobs and places to spend money generates more tax revenue and more money for businesses than if they were stuck at home otherwise.

      • @Mirshe@lemmy.world
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        211 days ago

        Precisely this. “Hey you need to make money” is what’s effectively killed Amtrak, and it killed passenger rail in much of the US (what wasn’t torn up by highway building).

    • @Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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      211 days ago

      What do you mean given up? They’re still laying more rails and running more trains than ever. Even running dozens of trains a day, like 95% of the time the trains are fully booked, or it’s just soft sleepers and maybe standing available if you try to book the day of, or even a few days in advance for longer routes.