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Old 10-01-2010, 01:32 PM
 
Location: Tower of Heaven
4,023 posts, read 7,342,548 times
Reputation: 1450

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This past Tuesday, Amtrak proposed to spend more than $100 billion increasing the top speeds of trains in its Boston-to-Washington corridor from 150 to 220 miles per hour. In August, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood estimated that President Obama's proposal to extend high-speed rail to other parts of the country will cost at least $500 billion.
No one knows where this money will come from, but President Obama argues that we need to spend it because high-speed rail will have a "transformative effect" on the American economy. In fact, all it will do is drag the economy down.

We can't afford the luxury of high-speed rail - USATODAY.com

What do you think about this ? Personally I love the high-speed rail and it's necessary for the US (for the most populated areas, not everywhere) but costs are impressive !
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Old 10-01-2010, 03:04 PM
 
2,419 posts, read 4,700,517 times
Reputation: 1317
Quote:
Originally Posted by RenaudFR View Post
This past Tuesday, Amtrak proposed to spend more than $100 billion increasing the top speeds of trains in its Boston-to-Washington corridor from 150 to 220 miles per hour. In August, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood estimated that President Obama's proposal to extend high-speed rail to other parts of the country will cost at least $500 billion.
No one knows where this money will come from, but President Obama argues that we need to spend it because high-speed rail will have a "transformative effect" on the American economy. In fact, all it will do is drag the economy down.

We can't afford the luxury of high-speed rail - USATODAY.com

What do you think about this ? Personally I love the high-speed rail and it's necessary for the US (for the most populated areas, not everywhere) but costs are impressive !
The people who negativley focus on the cost of improving infrastructre are the same people who ignore the far greater cost of fighting senseless wars to enrich oil companies and defense contractors(aka Texas).
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Old 10-01-2010, 04:04 PM
 
Location: On the Rails in Northern NJ
12,380 posts, read 26,757,245 times
Reputation: 4580
Quote:
Originally Posted by RenaudFR View Post
This past Tuesday, Amtrak proposed to spend more than $100 billion increasing the top speeds of trains in its Boston-to-Washington corridor from 150 to 220 miles per hour. In August, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood estimated that President Obama's proposal to extend high-speed rail to other parts of the country will cost at least $500 billion.
No one knows where this money will come from, but President Obama argues that we need to spend it because high-speed rail will have a "transformative effect" on the American economy. In fact, all it will do is drag the economy down.

We can't afford the luxury of high-speed rail - USATODAY.com

What do you think about this ? Personally I love the high-speed rail and it's necessary for the US (for the most populated areas, not everywhere) but costs are impressive !
That Amtrak plan is so flawed it will never happen in that......but the Northeastern / Mid Atlantic states are rebuilding 5,000 miles of Railway mostly diesel , but the denser areas will be electric.
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Old 10-01-2010, 05:22 PM
 
Location: Washington D.C. By way of Texas
20,501 posts, read 33,331,850 times
Reputation: 12109
Quote:
Originally Posted by killakoolaide View Post
The people who negativley focus on the cost of improving infrastructre are the same people who ignore the far greater cost of fighting senseless wars to enrich oil companies and defense contractors(aka Texas).
no aka Americans. Don't act like Texans are the only ones that are like this.
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Old 10-01-2010, 05:42 PM
 
2,419 posts, read 4,700,517 times
Reputation: 1317
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spade View Post
no aka Americans. Don't act like Texans are the only ones that are like this.
What I mean is big oil and defense contractors, those who have benefited off of the most recent costly wars while the rest of us paid for it, are headquarterd in Texas and amongst conservative leadership. Those are the same kinds of people trying to convince America that HSR is not worth it. What they really mean is that its not worth it for them.
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Old 10-01-2010, 06:19 PM
 
Location: Out in the Badlands
10,420 posts, read 10,772,660 times
Reputation: 7800
Quote:
Originally Posted by RenaudFR View Post
This past Tuesday, Amtrak proposed to spend more than $100 billion increasing the top speeds of trains in its Boston-to-Washington corridor from 150 to 220 miles per hour. In August, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood estimated that President Obama's proposal to extend high-speed rail to other parts of the country will cost at least $500 billion.
No one knows where this money will come from, but President Obama argues that we need to spend it because high-speed rail will have a "transformative effect" on the American economy. In fact, all it will do is drag the economy down.

We can't afford the luxury of high-speed rail - USATODAY.com

What do you think about this ? Personally I love the high-speed rail and it's necessary for the US (for the most populated areas, not everywhere) but costs are impressive !
We can't afford squat. Take a look at our national debt clock ...U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
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Old 10-01-2010, 09:49 PM
 
Location: Tucson/Nogales
23,072 posts, read 28,795,075 times
Reputation: 32359
This whole country is on a high-speed rail track to the eventuality of default on our sovereign debt.

So? Quick, quick! Let's build all the high-speed and light rail projects we can before that happens!
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Old 10-02-2010, 01:02 PM
 
Location: roaming gnome
12,385 posts, read 28,391,021 times
Reputation: 5877
I think its almost necessary and LONG overdue in high cluster population centers... i.e. the following stretches

Boston/NYC/Philadelphia/Baltimore/DC stretch

Milwaukee/Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Pittsburgh(possibly adding it to Toronto)

San Francisco/San Jose/Los Angeles/San Diego

I could see other ones being extremely useful as well...

i.e. Texas San Antonio/Dallas/Houston/Austin

and Pac NW Portland/Seattle/Vancouver.

The high speed rail will help all those regions and help pull up the economies of some of the struggling cities in the area.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretzelogik View Post
We can't afford squat. Take a look at our national debt clock ...U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
but we can afford multiple wars and massive bailouts apparently, also boosting up the car industries and interstates out of taxes.

boo rail, let me drive my suv by myself.
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Old 10-02-2010, 01:34 PM
eek
 
Location: Queens, NY
3,574 posts, read 7,697,257 times
Reputation: 1478
we need to do whatever these other countries with less money have done to get rail in their countries.
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Old 10-02-2010, 03:20 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
219 posts, read 437,518 times
Reputation: 240
If we could get back the 23.7 trillion that was stolen by the bankers we would be fine.
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