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I have no trouble thinking about what you say but now it is your turn to imagine the damage terrorists could be doing to your elevated tracks and surely would be doing if we had not taken the war to them.
Really? Are you f$%#ing kidding me? Show me the WMD's we found in Iraq. Show me a legitimate reason why we should have gone in there. We still have to deal with Afghanistan now, not to mention all of the people in Iraq that died because of us. Taking the fight to them only makes for active, live recruiting posters for terrorists. All they have to say is "look at what they did to your family" to one kid they can brainwash, and like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has shown us, it only takes one.
So many people from the left are unhappy with Obama carrying out the war in Afghanistan and talking so mean about terrorists and war against them the other day but if we had to go another year with waiting for them to hit us here I have trouble imagining what they might be doing knowing we wouldn't fight back.
Maybe, just maybe if we didn't interfere in their world, they wouldn't interfere in ours. The extremists would definitely have fewer people to recruit from.
Might want to investigate the subsidies airlines get if you think Amtrak is bad...
Or the help the road construction industry gets. Fuels taxes, registration fees and other fees only pay for a part of it, the rest comes from govt. bonds and general revenue at the local, state and federal level.
Hack, as it were, through the smarmy politician-speak in this editorial and you'll come to these two valuable paragraphs.
"Support for Amtrak must be strong--not because it is a cherished American institution, which it is--but because it is a powerful and indispensable way to carry us all into a leaner, cleaner, greener 21st century.
"Consider that if you shut down Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, it is estimated that to compensate for the loss, you'd have to add seven new lanes of highway to Interstate 95. When you consider that it costs an average of $30 million for one linear mile of one lane of highway, you see what a sound investment rail travel is. And that's before you factor in the environmental benefits of keeping millions and millions of cars off the road."
Hack, as it were, through the smarmy politician-speak in this editorial and you'll come to these two valuable paragraphs.
"Support for Amtrak must be strong--not because it is a cherished American institution, which it is--but because it is a powerful and indispensable way to carry us all into a leaner, cleaner, greener 21st century.
"Consider that if you shut down Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, it is estimated that to compensate for the loss, you'd have to add seven new lanes of highway to Interstate 95. When you consider that it costs an average of $30 million for one linear mile of one lane of highway, you see what a sound investment rail travel is. And that's before you factor in the environmental benefits of keeping millions and millions of cars off the road."
I dont know what talk there is of closing Amtrak, but to me it's a bad idea, too.
If Amtrak is so "great" then the people who actually RIDE it should PAY for it to even exist... and if Amtrak feel the need to employ more useless labor and inflate its costs without anything in return so that TAXPAYERS money keep flowing in while the CEOs make all their money and laughing all the way to the bank, you have a problem... if rail is so great and so many people use it, why is it always pretty bankrupt each year? Did you ever THINK to ask?
The one sure loser in the high-speed rail derby will be taxpayers. While some high-speed rail routes abroad break even or turn a modest profit on operations, none cover their capital costs, which means those will come from the public purse. The American pattern of urban development since World War II, which is highly spread out and suburbanized, also works against these rail lines' attracting the traffic they need to cover their operating costs, even in such promising corridors as San Francisco-San Diego or Tampa-Orlando-Miami. As a result, it's quite likely that these routes will require continuing operating subsidies along the lines of those Amtrak receives now for the overwhelming bulk of its service.
The one sure loser in the high-speed rail derby will be taxpayers. While some high-speed rail routes abroad break even or turn a modest profit on operations, none cover their capital costs, which means those will come from the public purse. The American pattern of urban development since World War II, which is highly spread out and suburbanized, also works against these rail lines' attracting the traffic they need to cover their operating costs, even in such promising corridors as San Francisco-San Diego or Tampa-Orlando-Miami. As a result, it's quite likely that these routes will require continuing operating subsidies along the lines of those Amtrak receives now for the overwhelming bulk of its service.
Thats not true , look at Amtrak's Northeast Corridor , it may not be at true-high Speed but its very popular , and 80% of the time quicker the driving and 100% the flying. But i do stress you already need a small network in the cities these line are targeted to run through , like a few light Rail lines , example St. Louis System is good ,aswell as DART in Dallas , if you don't have those type of systems then a line to your city will be pointless. You need Public Transit once you get to these cities
The one sure loser in the high-speed rail derby will be taxpayers. While some high-speed rail routes abroad break even or turn a modest profit on operations, none cover their capital costs, which means those will come from the public purse.
The pro-electric rail, anti-government spending solution is - - -
ZERO taxes (including property) on any private company (and its employees) that builds, operates or maintains electric rail mass transit.
Private sector will jump at the chance to make tax free profits. Ditto for workers.
Save time, money, resources when private enterprise operates a service.
Waste time, money, resources when government operates a service.
Why? Are highways, bridges and tunnels off limits to terrorists?
Last edited by sickofnyc; 01-28-2010 at 02:23 PM..
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