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Hm, if I remember correctly, the Federal Government spends roughly $45 billion a year on road maintenance. Add to that the expenditure on a state level and the number is quite staggering.
Yet, that's perfectly alright even though it is clear that the system is no longer viable with the increase in population nationwide.
Oh no, we keep spending for the same old crap without ever considering an investment in the future.
How many people does it benefit nationwide, and of course California will expect the rest of the people in this nation to dig deep and pay for it, but it will be of no benefit to them.
High speed rail is not the solution to our energy problems, since it will serve so few people compared to the general population.
Backwards thinking. The airline industry serves a relatively small portion of the public, yet we all pay for the costs of the air transportation system, airports, air traffic control, TSA, custom, etc.
In 30 to 50 years the air transportation system will be winding down and the need for high speed ground transport will be exploding. WHY? Soon we are going to need to dedicate the limited remaining crude oil supplies for intercontinental flights. You cannot fly commercial airplanes on wind or solar power, we are going to need find alternatives to air travel as crude oil becomes scarce.
A small step in right direction. every trip of train with 500 passengers will remove 500 cars from the highway and less american money will flow to saudi arabia. if there are 4 trips in one day-imagine 500*365*4=lot of savings in one year. its a long term savings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghostrider275452
High speed rail is not the solution to our energy problems, since it will serve so few people compared to the general population.
Different interstate highways benefit different different regions. same way different high speed lines will benefit respective regions. Iraq war benefited Dick Cheney's Haliburton comapany right??? 3 billion dollar daily bill of iraq war benefited how many people in this nation????
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghostrider275452
How many people does it benefit nationwide, and of course California will expect the rest of the people in this nation to dig deep and pay for it, but it will be of no benefit to them.
No thanks, California voters told the rest of the country to sod off when they passed Prop 13 in 1978. The oldtimers voted to lock in their assessments while sticking it to newcomers and renters.
So California can sod off now for all I care.
Prop 13 locks in every property assessment based on fair market value as of the date of transfer...
Backwards thinking. The airline industry serves a relatively small portion of the public, yet we all pay for the costs of the air transportation system, airports, air traffic control, TSA, custom, etc.
In 30 to 50 years the air transportation system will be winding down and the need for high speed ground transport will be exploding. WHY? Soon we are going to need to dedicate the limited remaining crude oil supplies for intercontinental flights. You cannot fly commercial airplanes on wind or solar power, we are going to need find alternatives to air travel as crude oil becomes scarce.
There is a difference, most air travel was funded by the private sector and did not have to build roads or rails, so the initial expense was not much compared to roads and rails, other than airports which are mostly paid for by the public via tax dollars.
With regard to California, once the current upgrade to 110 MPH top speeds between Bakersfield and Fresno is completed, I expect the focus of the program to shift to what those familiar with the railroad industry refer to as the "Tehachapi bottleneck" --a stretch of mixed single-and double-track between Mojave and Bakersfield. This area has both fairly severe grades (a conventional railroad can't operate economically with rises of more than 2.2 percent -- 22 feet per 1000 feet of distance) and sharp curves which mandate reduced speeds.
This stretch of railroad is already heavily congested with freight traffic and used by both of the two remaining Western rail carriers. Union Pacific is the actual owner, and the people at 14th and Dodge in Omaha maintain a strong (and justified!) suspicion toward Federal interfernce in any form. So if a new, probably record-length tunnel is bored under Tehachapi, I suspect that UP will either pass on participation, or drive a very hard bargain. What the other carrier, (Burlington Northern Santa Fe, now controlled exclusively by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway) might do is open to speculation.
As recently as 1965, California was the scene of the construction of new freight-rail line, when Southern Pacific, (now a part of UP) built a freight bypass around greater Los Angleles via Cajon Pass. In contrast, when predecessor Santa Fe decided to compete for passengers between the Soutland and the Bay Area, it opted for a feeder-bus network serving a Bakersfield hub. That servce was so well-remembered that Amtrak was ecouoraged to revive it on 1974, after a hiatus of about three years. But it doesn't, and can't "make money" in the sense of recovering the full cost of the investment.
The basic nature of rail passenger service makes public-sector participation pretty much mandatory -- there are a growing number of areas where additional highway capacity simply is not practical, but the fixed and very-expensive nature of the physical plant makes the investment of capital impractical because it is likely to be confiscated when the cliientele at the bottom of the economic heap starts fantasizing about "exploitation" -- or whatever. That is the real obstacle here, and the words "politics" and "foresight" are usually mutually exclusive.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 06-25-2012 at 01:59 PM..
We could replace fuel burning aircraft with gliders launched for the airport with giant catapaults.
Don't give em any ideas
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