A new exoskeleton to support workers in railways maintenance and renewal operations::A back support exoskeleton has been developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology—IIT) to improve railway workers’ safety and conditions for heavy manual material handling during maintenance …
Funny you mention Amtrak, as I just yesterday watched this video which shows the current Amtrak experience, explains the history and why it’s currently so far behind the rest of the world. Turns out, it’s been starved of funding from the government for a long time.
https://youtu.be/von_IMi97-w
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“Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock.”
“ Yes, your tax dollars (a tiny portion of them, at least) winds up keeping Amtrak trains on the tracks. Amtrak makes a significant portion of its money from ticket sales, but the company could not exist without the help of federal/state subsidies and billions of dollars in grants.
Amtrak typically sees between 1 and 2 billion dollars of federal money come its way each year. That’s roughly equivalent to a few thousandths of the federal government’s budget. If we took a super simple view of our tax bills, we could say that most Americans spend a couple bucks each year to subsidize Amtrak. Obviously, taxes are way more complicated than that, but it’s helpful to think about.
64% of Amtrak’s money comes directly from ticket sales. The rest comes from a combination of other things, most especially subsidies and grants, though investments and other business activities account for significant revenue as well.”
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Cheers :)
Btw, I was dreading checking this all day as I expected to get chewed out by an internet stranger. Thanks for your reply :)
For sure. I was wrong and today Im more knowledgable because you corrected me. Thats a gift. Today I understand the world better and have the opportunity to shed some ignorance and not repeat a fallacy again in the future. Cheers.