this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Eh, the thing is a large majority of their limes are unprofitable for being largely underused
Why did the Chinese take incredible amount of debt on to fund these lines that do not connect major population centers? Prob for that chart
This chart is a good example of what happens when transport infrastructure is judged through a purely economic lens versus what happens when affordable travel is seen as a necessary feature of a civilised society. (Not to mention the jobs created and the carbon saved.)
I would disagree, while I do not believe that public transportation needs to be self-sustaining at all; they should be built/deployed at a capacity as its needed in order of minimizing waste
If a train line is not profitable, its not used
How do you feel about rural roads? Should we not build them unless we can make them profitable?
Unironically what a bunch of red states have been doing, while blaming rural decline on large liberal municipalities.
Highly-used roads are even less profitable since they need expensive repairs much more often.
To your point, though, the idea that every service has to make a profit is most of what's wrong with me modern society.
The very approach to calculating "profit" is backwards.
We're not measuring the economic value ad of the lane of transit. We're measuring the margin between cost of the lane and the immediate rent produced.
Concepts like "hours lost in transit" or "physical harm from accidents" goes entirely out the window. Negative externalities are never measured by capitalist economics.
Not sure that's the same. Dumping a bunch of gravel is far cheaper and less wasteful than a rail line.
Edit: I will add that I don't agree that profitability should be the foremost consideration when it comes to building public infrastructure.
If rural roads were a high cost investment meant to transport very large crowds and very large amounts of cargo to a place lacking such needs? And if we had a much cheaper alternative capable of running vehicles meant of transporting smaller crowds and small amounts of cargo? Then yea, we should not build those rural roads