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Too many Americans are convinced that high-speed rail (or any sort of rail) is a dastardly commie boondoggle, and a power-grab by rapacious centralized government. Good idea or bad idea, it will never happen in America.
Even at the cost of $50 million per mile (like CA rail) it is still about like 4 Zumwalt class Destroyers at $4.2 billion each to build a line DC to NY - AND we don't make revenue by building Destroyers.
Really it is just a matter of priorities and it's about time the govt started spending some of our hard earned tax money on programs that benefit US citizens rather than those that make them veterans or VA hospital patients.
Last edited by Vacanegro; 11-18-2017 at 04:31 PM..
Always amused by the way the Left plays fast and loose with a vague term like "promote the general welfare" while atttempting to say a very specific phrase like "shall not he infringed" doesn't mean what it very clearly says.
There's enough info out there .... That page has many citation with much info if ones cares to actually read some of it.
We could have high speed rail if we wanted. I mean we can build a wall! We can’t give people insurance either but we can build more bombs so we can stay in a constant state of war.
We could have high speed rail if we wanted. I mean we can build a wall! We can’t give people insurance either but we can build more bombs so we can stay in a constant state of war.
Even at the cost of $50 million per mile (like CA rail) it is still about like 4 Zumwalt class Destroyers at $4.2 billion each to build a line DC to NY - AND we don't make revenue by building Destroyers.
Really it is just a matter of priorities and it's about time the govt started spending some of our hard earned tax money on programs that benefit US citizens rather than those that make them veterans or VA hospital patients.
You seem completely unaware of the trillions of debt the fedguv has racked up while running "programs that benefit US citizens" into the ground.
The reason we have AMTRAK is because the railroads were losing their collective shirts running passenger trains. They wanted out and they got out. We don't need another government run boondoggle.
It's not that it is too expensive. It's that we prefer perpetual wars. Not that we are willing to pay for those either.
Yup. The war in Iraq alone would have paid for a lot of high-speed rail lines.
Railroads move people and freight cheaper than all other means. And for the tonnage being transported, rail is the cleanest of all methods as well.
Japanese bullet trains now travel at 310 mph. India is going all in on that Japanese technology to update their rail system, some of which goes back to the colonial occupation, with lines that have been in operation that hasn't changed for 100 years or more.
So, once more, America dithers and gives up more new technology that's profitable and hugely job creating.
We prefer to be jammed into stinking airplanes like sardines, while the Japanese travel in comfort and ease. With similar arrival times.
There are some things a government can do better than private enterprise, if the people have the will to make it happen.
The United States once had one of the finest and fastest rail systems in the world, and it only happened because our government made it a national priority. It was made a national priority because the people demanded it.
The reason we have AMTRAK is because the railroads were losing their collective shirts running passenger trains. They wanted out and they got out. We don't need another government run boondoggle.
For many years, the freight railroads recovered much of their passenger-related expense by carrying mail and "express" -- the stuff that now goes via UPS and FedEx; in the early seventies the volume of business skyrocketed, but the carriers found a more efficient way to handle it.
As a teenage railroad buff, I recall a daily New York - Pittsburgh train, designated simply as Railway Express (Agency) a reference to the national consortium the railroads organized to handle all such business. It usually handled up to seventy cars, many of them with refrigerator capability, and presumably split into two sections (one for Chicago, one for St. Louis) at Pittsburgh. After the inception of Amtrak, the service disappeared, but new freight-modeled COFC (container on flat car) service took its place. In short, the mail (which was heavily cut back in the late Sixties) and express services no longer were used to indirectly subsidize passengers.
And as an aside, the Railway Express Agency itself was a consistent money-loser from its creation in 1929 through its final exit. But that might have been a deliberate result of the methods by which payments to the participating rail carriers had been structured.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 11-18-2017 at 07:13 PM..
Yup. The war in Iraq alone would have paid for a lot of high-speed rail lines.
Railroads move people and freight cheaper than all other means. And for the tonnage being transported, rail is the cleanest of all methods as well.
Japanese bullet trains now travel at 310 mph. India is going all in on that Japanese technology to update their rail system, some of which goes back to the colonial occupation, with lines that have been in operation that hasn't changed for 100 years or more.
So, once more, America dithers and gives up more new technology that's profitable and hugely job creating.
We prefer to be jammed into stinking airplanes like sardines, while the Japanese travel in comfort and ease. With similar arrival times.
There are some things a government can do better than private enterprise, if the people have the will to make it happen.
The United States once had one of the finest and fastest rail systems in the world, and it only happened because our government made it a national priority. It was made a national priority because the people demanded it.
So you are okay with appropriating private property to build high speed rail.
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