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Fiat currency, we can spend all the money we want on ridiculous things.
Some folks would gladly blanket the USA with high-speed rail.... even if it is a very dumb,
financially-irresponsible, unneeded thing to do.
Following your logic, America would not have been built. 100 -200 years ago visionaries and entrepreneurs took huge risks and pushed this nation forward against all odds. 19 century trains stopped at places that were not on the map. They later become important trade and commerce centers. I live in a village, which until 1850 was just a train platform. And subways? Do you understand how risky and difficult was such idea before 1900? A tunnel under the Hudson? Will people ride it? Not to speak of airports. Who needs airports when you can ride your mule?
But that spirit died down and after the 60s. Once a world leader, now a third world country (infrastructure wise). How much did U.S. invest in its infrastructure after the Eisenhower highway system was completed? The trains in NY - (a.k.a the greatest city in the world!) are basically relics from the 60s while the WW2 losers - Germany and Japan are years ahead.
Following your logic, America would not have been built. 100 -200 years ago visionaries and entrepreneurs took huge risks and pushed this nation forward against all odds. 19 century trains stopped at places that were not on the map. They later become important trade and commerce centers. I live in a village, which until 1850 was just a train platform. And subways? Do you understand how risky and difficult was such idea before 1900? A tunnel under the Hudson? Will people ride it? Not to speak of airports. Who needs airports when you can ride your mule?
But that spirit died down and after the 60s. Once a world leader, now a third world country (infrastructure wise). How much did U.S. invest in its infrastructure after the Eisenhower highway system was completed? The trains in NY - (a.k.a the greatest city in the world!) are basically relics from the 60s while the WW2 losers - Germany and Japan are years ahead.
Insane, I don't think you read my previous post!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!
I would be all for a PRIVATE rail-company identifying the profitable and needed routes......and setting them up. Government-rail doing it, ummmmmm, nope!
Why do conservatives and anti-train people live in a zero sum world?? Trains are not meant to erase cars or buses. We need multiple modes of transportation. Air, rail, bus, single car's all have pluses and minuses. Anti-intellectualism is really going to make out country into a third world country.
Trains would be more convenient if they went where I want to go.
O, wait - that's impossible even after spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
How is it impossible?? Even with airplanes and city buses, they never go exactly where you have to go. You are supposed to walk or take a cab to reach your final destination. If you take greyhound it is not going to go exactly to your destination. I don't see how rail is different in this respect. I see you are from Austin. If you took a train to downtown Dallas or Houston, it would be a better and faster(assuming we properly funded Amtrak and Amtrak rode on passenger only rail) ride than driving their, even though you might have to take an additional bus or cab to get where you need.
I'm an America in the UK. Train is by far the most luxurious method of travel for regional transport. If I want to go to London from Glasgow, I hop on Virgin Trains, 4.5 hours 180 mph top speed. Dining car, etc.
If it drove it it would take over 8 hours.
I am flying to London tonight unfortunately...its 6pm, flight leaves at 9 I need to leave now to save myself the hell that is security and waiting.
There is nothing socialist or some conspiracy about rail...its a big reason I don't want go back to the U.S., this is unbelievably convenient
Yes, it's quite luxurious and convenient if you want to go where the train goes. Otherwise, it's quite inconvenient. For example, let's say you live in Kansas City and want to visit your aunt in Rapid City South Dakota. You take the train from KC to Chicago, then from Chicago to Minneapolis. Then rent a car and drive eight hours to Rapid City. That's probably 25 - 30 hours of travel. Meanwhile, a bus or car would have taken maybe 16 hours.
Or you propose a rail line to Rapid City. Your comment is that because Amtrak is currently not as expansive, that somehow makes is bad. Either way, rail is good for medium distances. No one is saying it is superior to airplanes for long distances.
Insane, I don't think you read my previous post!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!
I would be all for a PRIVATE rail-company identifying the profitable and needed routes......and setting them up. Government-rail doing it, ummmmmm, nope!
Today, in the current athmosdphere, no private party will start such projects. Only the government has the capability, with the goal of selling it to the private sector. It can be privatized in small portions, pieace by piece. Large infrastructure projects can lift up the economy. When it will start firing at all cylinders, the investors come in. Currently there is no momentum.
Only the government has the capability, with the goal of selling it to the private sector. It can be privatized in small portions, pieace by piece.
This was supposed to happen with Amtrak.... 3 decades later. The private sector will only be interested in profitable lines, the government will be left with the unprofitable incurring even more debt becsue they will generating no revenue at all. As I understand it for Amtrak the lines in the Northeast are profitable but that profit is being used to help support the rest. Sell what you can to private enterprise and dump the rest.
I can care less what mode of transportation people use but I don't think I should be expected to pay for it, especially when you are selling a hamburger for $9 that cost you $16 to make.
Let me ask one other thing, if I'm interested in starting a private line how am I supposed to compete against government supported line that can sell $16 hamburgers for $9?
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