Transportation

Atlanta Flies Past Chicago

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Atlanta had more takeoffs and landings than Chicago in 2005:

The FAA said Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport finished 2005 with 980,197 takeoffs and landings, while Chicago O’Hare International Airport ended the year second with 972,246.

The Atlanta airport for the last several years has been the busiest airport in terms of passengers. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said today that full-year numbers in that category are not yet available for 2005.

Well, I hadn’t realized that Atlanta was even close to Chicago. Little places like Los Angeles International and Dallas-Fortworth International are far behind.

NB: As usual the linked article has no links to the supporting FAA data and 5 minutes fingering through the FAA site did not yield any meaningful info either…but, then, it might just be the researcher….

When Is That Flight Going to Arrive?

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One of the handy helpers that the internet has brought us is the ability to track airline flights via sites like Flight Arrivals and Flight View. No more arriving at the airport to find that the flight will be three hours late.*
New on this front is FlightAware. They claim

Founded in March of 2005, FlightAware is the first company to offer free flight tracking for both private and commercial air traffic in the United States. FlightAware’s proprietory flight arrival time algorithms combined with our powerful, intuitive, and reliable web-based interface yield the most capable and useful flight tracking application on the Internet.

I just gave this a quick test drive and it is pretty nifty with lots of info available. The registration was a pain but, then, that’s a good reason to have a pseudonymous email account. One downside of this service today is poor to non-existent international tracking.
As usual, your mileage may vary. Check’m out.
Via A Guy In New York.
*Though you need to check early because flights can be 45 minutes early as we found out a while back. We checked about an hour before arrival and found out the plane was landing in 12 minutes and it was going to be a 40 minute drive to the airport.

DART seeks fare solution?

This entry was posted in Capitalism Economics Libertarianism Transportation on by

Perhaps they should be seeking a fair solution instead?

Rising gas prices are prompting a growing number of North Texas commuters to park their cars in favor of buses and trains, but Dallas Area Rapid Transit is considering service cuts to help balance its budget.
Though DART ridership has increased 11 percent on its bus and light-rail lines and 18 percent on the Trinity Railway Express commuter line, the additional passengers have not helped the agency’s finances.
The problem: a lower-than-expected sales tax revenue forecast for 2006 throughout the region, and increased fuel costs.
The sales tax numbers are crucial because DART gets most of its revenue from that source. The transit agency, which spends about $887,000 a day to run its buses and rail lines, recovers about 11 percent of its daily operating cost through fares.
…….
According to DART, Route 234 attracts an average of 59 riders a day, and that translates into a subsidy of almost $24 for every passenger trip. The transit agency has pushed for those riders to form van pools, which have a subsidy of about $1 per passenger trip
In considering which bus lines to shrink or eliminate, DART weighs one route’s performance against similar routes. Route 234 supporters argued to the board that the Plano-to-Irving bus service is vastly different from other express routes that run from outlying stops directly to downtown Dallas. Those routes have a goal of a $4.50 subsidy per passenger trip.

Reads like another typical case of a government involved market failure.
The only fair solution is one where the subsidy per passenger trip is $0.00 and fares cover both the cost of operations and capital. If the passengers object then they should seek out an alternative that does not include taking money from others to subsidize their choices of where to live and work.

Amtrak Subsidies

This entry was posted in Business US Capitalism Economics Federal Government Government Libertarianism Transportation on by

The New York Times editorialized today about the need for the federal government to continue subsidizing Amtrak:

For some time, the Bush administration has pushed for Amtrak reforms, which almost everybody supports in principle. But the administration’s most recent proposal is more like a death sentence – a slow dismantling of Amtrak into regional services while costs currently paid by the federal government would be forced onto cash-starved states. The fatal flaw in the administration’s thinking is the idea that the railroad should be self-sufficient. That’s impractical and unnecessary, given the benefits it provides in taking cars off congested highways and offering an alternative to air service in the post-9/11 era.

Sorry, this is a bit hard to say but the bushies may be right on this one. There is no good reason for “cash-starved” states to pick up the tab for anything either. The various government entities do not need to be in the theme park business.
If Amtrak really does an effective job of getting cars off crowded highways and is a meaningful alternative to the airlines (which I doubt) then for those routes where this is true it should be able to be self sustaining.

Highway Stuff

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How many times have you been driving down a highway and suddenly wondered, gosh, what does the end of this highway look like? Maybe never, right? But if you have then Froggie just might have a picture to answer your question (especially if you live in Minnesota).
Perhaps you’d rather see the exit signs for a highway. Well, he has a bunch of those as well. And there is more…..
Like he says: everyone’s gotta have a hobby (some are just a little cleaner than others).
Via Incoming Signals.