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You should go someplace with a functioning rail system sometime. There is no such thing as a decent privately owned rail system in this world. Maybe you would like it if we went back to private ownership of highways too? A simple look around at reality will show that private ownership of infrastructure is nonsense, simply because there is no way to make it both effective and profitable without restricting the economy.
Europe and Japan ar far different than the US when it comes to public transit, specifically rail infrastructure.
We have a few metros with somewhat functioning rail/subway but nothing to the extent they have. Europe has adopted rail as a significant means of daily travel.
I would hypothesize that in the us if we invested billions into rail infrastructure that still nobody would use it. Or at least you still will have minimal buyin.
We have trax in Utah and some people use it; however my wife will not rode it into work. They have a changeover in the heart of homeless/drug/panhandling area. Plus there have been several rapes and sexual assaults on trax to women riding by themselves or returning home from work at night.
The same problems exist in Atlanta with Marta and Miamis crappy rail grid. People are scared to used the infrastructure because of safety issues which may not exist in Europe or Japan to the same extent.
Or seeing how violent crime rates have been plummeting for decades now, it may be that too many Americans are simply being preyed upon by the NRA, ending up with baseless beliefs that thugs and gang-bangers lurk behind every tree and shrubbery just waiting for their chance to pounce.
And the anti-tax, anti-spending folks still don't get it.
Most intelligent people understand that there is a need for a well working solid infrastructure in order to have a running working country. And they understand that taxes are required to accomplish that.
I don't have a problem paying taxes. I have a problem when I'm being overtaxed and watching my tax money being squandered on bs programs
Because the federal government needs to get out of the infrastructure business. States need to take over and do whatever is necessary including raising taxes, if necessary. The federal government needs to quit the federal gasoline tax and quit lording over the States.
I’ll take the exact opposite position. Airports are national (or even international) assets. They should be administered by the federal government, and the federal government should own the land underneath them, just as it does the military bases. Likewise with marine ports. And really, likewise with anything having to do with, um, interstate commerce.
It’s time that we started realizing that the states are not independent mini-nations linked by a loose confederation that prints money and raises a national defense.
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Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell
Since then, the US rail system has deteriorated so badly that nobody in their right mind, including the federal government, would want to own it. Bring it up to 21st century standards would cost as much as invading Iraq. It's no accident that any freight with a delivery date goes by truck. If you put it on a rail car, it can get lost for 3 months. Private ownership of railroads has been an abject failure, though the old Right of Way makes great walking paths after they tear up the lines.
Railroads are a national tragedy in America. Once the mightiest in the world, they've degenerated to being inferior to what's in India. Thus the nation's highways of necessity are clogged by 18-wheelers.
It will take a very substantial number of trillions - that's with a "t", not with a "b" - to fix this. And it's worth it.
One of the key problems is just how much it costs per mile. In the USA, the price tag of infrastructure projects is substantially more than comparable infrastructure projects in France, UK, Germany, Korea, etc.
I don't have a problem paying taxes. I have a problem when I'm being overtaxed and watching my tax money being squandered on bs programs
You are not a qualified judge of such things. Your problems here begin in an unfounded belief that you do or should have any say in these matters at all. Once again, in representative forms of government, lawmakers are elected to represent the INTERESTS of their constituents, not their damned-fool OPINIONS. It is those we elect who make taxing and spending decisions for us. Recognizing the scope and complexity of the task, these folks have strong tendencies toward obtaining advice and counsel from the most well-informed experts on matters at hand. Your are not one of those experts. You are an outsider who does not actually have a clue. You lack both the time and the training that would be necessary to be able to keep abreast of such things, so excepting perhaps for some random pollster or other, no one will ever be calling you up to see what you think about any issue at all. This is how things are designed and supposed to be.
It’s time that we started realizing that the states are not independent mini-nations linked by a loose confederation that prints money and raises a national defense.
Fortunately, some of our best and brightest minds began realizing all that after the failed Annapolis Convention of 1786. It's mostly now just the throw-backs and straggler-types that we have left to deal with. The rest have already understood that abandonment of much of their one-time sovereignty was involved in simply becoming states within this more perfect union.
Railroads are a national tragedy in America. Once the mightiest in the world, they've degenerated to being inferior to what's in India. Thus the nation's highways of necessity are clogged by 18-wheelers.
True, but it's impractical to build and operate heavy-rail everywhere that freight and passengers want and need to go. Some bits of smaller scale transport technology are going to be necessary, and once those exist, they will be utilized. It's all multi-modal, all the time.
Railroads once were privately and corporately owned. It didn't work out very well in the end.
And, with the exceptions of Amtrak and a few oddities here and there, they still are; the near meltdown of 1945-1985 was caused by over-regulators who turned a blind eye. Once the Staggers (deregulation) Act was passed, with union co-operation, in the early Eighties, the industry regained stable, if not spectacular profitability -- similar to the electric utilities. The eyesores caused by deferred maintenance have been cleaned ups, and there isn't a single North American railroad in financial jeopardy, to my knowledge.
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Like gardens, infrastructure needs regular care and tending to.
Agreed ...... by the private sector whenever possible.
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Originally Posted by ohio_peasant
Railroads are a national tragedy in America. Once the mightiest in the world, they've degenerated to being inferior to what's in India. Thus the nation's highways of necessity are clogged by 18-wheelers.
It will take a very substantial number of trillions - that's with a "t", not with a "b" - to fix this. And it's worth it.
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Originally Posted by Pub-911
True, but it's impractical to build and operate heavy-rail everywhere that freight and passengers want and need to go. Some bits of smaller scale transport technology are going to be necessary, and once those exist, they will be utilized. It's all multi-modal, all the time.
India doesn't have the mass production/ consumption-driven societies found in North America -- nor does it have the easy access to water transport found in Europe and Japan. Its rail network is built around passenger transport -- most of it for short distances, and under very gritty conditions.
Our freight rail network is functioning well, And what we had prior to the emergence of government-underwritten competition from highways and airlines after World War ii worked well. It was the period in between, with the railroads caught in a regulatory straight-jacket, that almost destroyed and nationalized the industry (something of which the Lefties would likely approve).
There are problems; naturally, most of them are in "blue" America -- where the spoiled children want new playthings, but only if somebody else foots the bill.
And, with the exceptions of Amtrak and a few oddities here and there, they still are...
Due to the fact that it all crashed and burned, the glory-days of the private/corporate railroad model simply came to an ignominious end. Like Wall Street investment banks, the whole structure was replaced by tiers of mega-holding companies closely tied to public sector entities.
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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
Agreed ...... by the private sector whenever possible.
The private sector ultimately brought nothing but failure to railroading in this country. All we got out of it in the end was some really nice rails-to-trails conversions. Like rumors of Mark Twain's death, rumors of private sector ingenuity and efficiency have been greatly exaggerated.
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