Knox Ross is chair of the Southern Rail Commission, an interstate rail compact between Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that advocates for and engages stakeholders around the expansion and revitalization of rail service in the region.

In this timely Rail Bite, Mr. Ross—who is also a practicing Certified Public Accountant—illuminates some of the widespread misconceptions behind the expectation that passenger trains turn a profit.

In his view, we often fail to recognize the key factors that make some transportation enterprises profitable—from public investment in infrastructure to unique circumstances that allow for additional business ventures to be synergistically added to the transportation service.

Mr. Ross also argues that the purpose of government is in some sense the opposite of that of business: whereas businesses are primarily obliged to return profit to their investors, governments exist to put tax revenue toward satisfying the needs and interests of taxpayers—albeit as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Our new Rail Bites series presents you with some of our favorite clips from our amazing guests on Reconnect America. With Rail Bites, you can look forward to more frequent, shorter-form content in between our carefully crafted longer episodes.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

Learn more, get involved and pitch in to support the work of Solutionary Rail at SolutionaryRail.org. Keep the podcast ads-free and without paywalls by making a tax-deductible donation HERE.