Sure donate YOUR money

Write to the Executive Council (which will eventually be involved in approving the contract for the study).

Is this more important than Schools, Teachers and Red-Tagged bridges and roads? Or is this really a want to have instead of a dire need Atlant?

Ya sure about that?

The Downeaster is managed by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority and operated by Amtrak.[16] As of December 2007, operating the Downeaster costs $13.5 million per year, of which $6 million is covered by fares paid by passengers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downeaster

Amtrak was supposed to be profitable within one year of its startup. It has never even broken even, let alone made a profit. If rail was an economical method of passenger travel, private industry would be laying tracks all over the place.

Everyone in the world expects their government to keep public transportation operating--especially rail. Ticket sales do not have anything to do with freight profits and efficiency. If it were up to some people in NH we would be still using the horse and wagon with tolls and paying no taxes to the government................

"For those concerned about spending your gas tax money on a service that you will not use, I don't understand why you are not contacting your legislators to ask for introduction of a bill that would institute a train-rider tax, to be paid for by each passenger, and transferred to the state to help cover the costs of building and maintaining the rail system?"

A train rider tax? Why not just have the fare reflect the cost of the service...

Sure, I'm just a layperson so I don't know how these things work; I was just trying to imagine how the customer of rail service could pay both the company providing the service AND the state and/or federal government, which must be funding a big part of something as everyone is so upset about the waste of their tax money. What is the percentage of the gas/deisel tax to be allocated to the rail service, and what is the other tax money that we are wasting, is it our federal income tax? What unit of the federal government is responsible for whichever of your tax money is used for the project?

Of cours they will not be willing to. The whole reason they want it is to get someone else to pay for their ride to work.

It would be a 2 way street. Companies are always looking for ways to move their IT and support jobs out of expensive Boston buildings. Train service to Salem would allow those jobs to move up here.

Agreed. After Hassan's current term concludes in two years Democrats will have held the governorship for 16 of the last 18 years. When is generating new jobs in New Hampshire going to start becoming a priority around here!
This rail proposal's operating costs would be paid for in part by special property tax assessments on homes and business in towns close to the line in addition to the taxes you already are paying. Many are already stretched to the limit with current levels of property taxation. This is completely uneconomical to operate. Just add more buses if more capacity is needed. The bus line service currently in place works well.

Done properly, the train would reach Nashua, Merrimack/Bedford, Manchester, and Concord.

The property values lowering argument seems suspect, News Flash. It stands to reason that if a Boston commute by rail were possible from a location, demand would increase and the property value would go up. If there reverse is the case as you assert, hopefully the committee will figure that out and advise against rail.

Yeah, nothing like a noisy train rumbling through your neighborhood to boost property values. eh? Not to mention making it much easier for the Boston drug dealers to access the area. Yeah, a train would brink all kinds of great things!

The tracks that this would follow have been around longer than any of us. We already have freight train noise, and I suspect most of us near the tracks would welcome the addition of passenger service.

As to the point about drug dealers using the train, there's no advantage to that group over existing bus service, so it's not even worth mentioning.

It's fairly obvious that you decided that you're against trains first, then just posted the first thing that came to your mind without even thinking it through.

Proud Conservative:

> Yeah, nothing like a noisy train rumbling through your neighborhood
> to boost property values. eh?

Strangely enough, in *THE REAL WORLD*, the Massachusetts cities and towns nearest the "T" often command the highest property values. Andover, Newton, Wellesley, and the like don't seem to suffer from presence of fast, rapid access to Boston.

Yes they would hop the train in a minute. But would they if the price of the ticket had to cover the cost of the train?
And again , if companies moved jobs here we would not need the train as the people are already here.

> Rail, why not jump back in history 100 years

This must explain why the Chinese are building the world's largest *HIGH-SPEED RAIL NETWORK*, ehh? The fact that they want to leap back 100 years?

Atlant-ever been to China an dseen one of their construction projects? I doubt you have. I visit China on business 3-4 times a year. I go to the industrial cities, notthe touristy places you see in the brochures. I've witnessed the construction projects and shoddy workmanship. And, when they build a road, or reservoir, power plant or rail line they line up the bulldozers and go from point A to point B. Your farm or apartment in the way....too bad....move, or get run over. Endangered species in the way.....they eat it. Is that what you want the US to do to compete?

And they shouldn't be. Roads and bridges should be 100% funded thru fuel taxes.

Toll roads are ineligable for federal hwy funds. We do pay a fed fuel tax, no reason to chase that money away and then replace it with another cost on ourselves.

Only Interstate highways are prohibited from adding new tolls when receiving federal funds.

That was the excuse they used, but it is not based in fact. That law states that you cannot ADD a toll to a INTERSTATE road if you received federal funds to build it. Rt 3 is not part of the Interstate system.

Under 23 U.S.C. 129, Federal participation is allowed in the following five types of toll activities:
Initial construction (except on the Interstate System) of toll highways, bridges, and tunnels, including the approaches to these facilities;
Reconstructing, resurfacing, restoring, and rehabilitating of any existing toll facility;
Reconstruction or replacement of free bridges or tunnels and conversion to toll facilities;
Reconstruction of a free Federal-aid highway (except on the Interstate system) and conversion to a toll facility; and
Preliminary studies to determine the feasibility of the above toll construction activities.

http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tolling_pricing/toll_agreements.htm