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[Lark]

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[Coriolis]

Infrastructure serves a common good. It should be paid for collectively, by the community at large, based on ability to pay. In US terms, that would be from income tax, either on the state or the federal level.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Who ?

FED

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

Depends on what infrastructure though; like if it's the railway lines, it should be the railway companies and then sell tickets to make back the cost and earn a profit; like a direct line from one city to a regional airport making for that city or town or village better connected so you could land at that regional airport, and take 1 train to the city rather than 3 hours and 3 changes on the train or whatever or expensive taxi with no coach or bus service so it's either taxi or hire car.
I would if I could build a tram/trolley line that can run from the airport, utilise any existing railway tracks so like TramLink in London the trams/trolleys could partly follow any existing routes.
The transport network/service I'd establish would have to pay and run a service to cover the costs, and maybe get some public funding and goodwill grants from Lottery Tickets?
Teeside (MME) - Whitby
On the existing network; any time saved from flying in from London will be lost getting from the airport to the town.

This airport is only 42 Miles away from Whitby by road
Such an express route is needed for Whitby and its closest airport because the cost of the taxi from the airport to Whitby and back again is £140.00, almost as much as the return flight from London at £149.00.

If we could get that price down so it's at most £15.00 each way so, no more than £30.00 for a return trip, and get 1 dedicated network building tracks in the name of express, so, fast trains doing like 90 mph can do it in 25 minutes and boom/Whitby get an airport that's a real option for them because 'The Whitby Express' Starting in Whitby at one end, and get off at Teeside International Airport (MME) the other, and 'The Whitby Express' could build the track, buy the trams/trolleys or trains and run this.

It's not like I'd have to build many turns, seems like a straight path East to West and I feel The Whitby Express'll be good for Whitby and the airport and Britain as a whole if we could fly in and get to Whitby like anywhere else as a real/valid option of flying in rather than going by land, fly in and get to Whitby in under 30 minutes for £15.00 each way for adults and make other tickets and schemes work out less than that cap so you'd always get a better rate with this Express than taking a taxi, and taxi drivers in Whitby won't have to drag out to the airport.

Why can't the petrol/gas companies like Shell/BP/Esso/Exxon etc pay for electric car charging points and then sell them electricity to cover the cost?
Why not the power company?

 

[Kephalos]

There is such a thing as a toll road.

 

[Coriolis]

Depends on what infrastructure though; like if it's the railway lines, it should be the railway companies and then sell tickets to make back the cost and earn a profit; like a direct line from one city to a regional airport making for that city or town or village better connected so you could land at that regional airport, and take 1 train to the city rather than 3 hours and 3 changes on the train or whatever or expensive taxi with no coach or bus service so it's either taxi or hire car.
I would if I could build a tram/trolley line that can run from the airport, utilise any existing railway tracks so like TramLink in London the trams/trolleys could partly follow any existing routes.
The transport network/service I'd establish would have to pay and run a service to cover the costs, and maybe get some public funding and goodwill grants from Lottery Tickets?

The fact that we in the US have so few rail lines between major cities indicates that this market-based approach is inadequate to produce them. If they are viewed as a sufficiently compelling common good, perhaps to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, they will need to be paid for or at least subsidized through taxes, just like public education and police and fire departments. You can't pay even a high price to use something that doesn't exist, and high prices for existing service will lead to lackluster ridership, missing out on the intended contributions to the public good.

There is such a thing as a toll road.

Indeed. I avoid them wherever possible. Road tolls are just another regressive tax, levied inconsistently across those who benefit from the presence of the road. Collected by human employees, they seem quite inefficient. Collected electronically using automatic transponders, they inconvenience travellers away from home, and become a means of surveillance.

 

[The Cat]

corporations benefit from infrastructure...and tend to have just oodles of money...

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

We pay car tax in the UK that pays for roads.
Toll bridges and stuff in the UK pay for the individual bridges that're collecting the tolls.
During Covid, the whole rail network was nationalised so we're paying for the railways too, but companies still need to sell fares for tickets to use something taxes now pay for.

London's congestion charge is more of a tax on carbon emissions, I'm not sure what it pays for, maybe trees?
EDIT: Turns out the congestion charge money gets invested in TFL/Transport For London/into London's public transport.

 

[Falcarius]

We pay car tax in the UK that pays for roads.
Toll bridges and stuff in the UK pay for the individual bridges that're collecting the tolls.
During Covid, the whole rail network was nationalised so we're paying for the railways too, but companies still need to sell fares for tickets to use something taxes now pay for.

London's congestion charge is more of a tax on carbon emissions, I'm not sure what it pays for, maybe trees?
EDIT: Turns out the congestion charge money gets invested in TFL/Transport For London/into London's public transport.

1) Car Tax does not exist in UK, it is called "Vehicle Excise Duty" which is tax on emissions.
2) Roads are funded out of general taxes for the most part; tolls are not that common. The most common general tax is income tax, corporation tax, and VAT.
3) The rail network not nationalized in the traditional sense. The trains are stilled leased from private companies to franchise holders- there are three rolling stock companies who own all the trains for the most part - Angel Trains, Eversholt Rail Group, and Porterbrook. Train maintenance is carried out by companies such as Bombardier and Alstom which are private companies. The infrastructure such as track, large stations, depots and signaling owned and maintained by Network Rail, a not-for-profit company. whose only shareholder is the government since Hatfield and Ladbroke Grove accidents forced Network Rail into administration.

Two things are happening- 1) the government is taking on all the financial risk of running service during the pandemic so essentially temporally nationalizing the rail services temporarily.
2)After the pandemic, the government is getting rid of the franchise model where companies are given monopolies to operate on specific routes to a system of tougher performance targets replacing them by contracts that will incentivize private firms on punctuality and efficiency rather than raising revenue (mirroring the system used in London for the capital’s Overground trains) while at the same time the government takes a more hands-on approach to timetabling of services, information, planning, streamline and simplify fares etc. The services will ran by private companies where possible. In that the government still considers itself the service provider of last resort so won't run services unless a private company "unable" to run; such as the case with LNER and Northern presently. Hence this is not really nationalization in the traditional sense; it is a really complex hybrid public-private funded and provided services. The rail companies will continue to receive £4bn in government subsidies.