Posted on 08/05/2010 10:30:03 PM PDT by george76
The truth is that high-speed rail doesn’t work in Europe or Asia either. Japan and France have both spent about as much on high-speed rail as they have on their intercity freeway systems, yet the average residents of those countries travel by car 10 to 20 times as much as they travel by high-speed rail. They also fly domestically more than they take high-speed rail. While the highways and airlines pay for themselves out of gas taxes and other user fees, high-speed rail is heavily subsidized and serves only a tiny urban elite.
Obama uses the fact that France, Japan, and a few other countries are racing one another to have the fastest high-speed trains to argue that we need to join the race. That’s like saying we need to spend billions subsidizing buggy whip or horse collar manufacturers or some third-world country will beat us in those technologies. The fact is that high-speed trains will never be as fast as flying on long trips and never be as convenient as driving on short trips, and there is no medium-length trip in which high-speed rail can compete without heavy subsidies.
The rail advocates go ballistic whenever anyone questions their fantasies, mostly engaging in ad hominem attacks (“you must be paid by the oil companies!”) or accusing skeptics of lying about rail...
Building high-speed rail will be like standing in the chilly vestibule of an Amtrak train in mid-winter Chicago and burning million-dollar bills to keep warm. But that’s what happens when you base your transportation policies on a slogan from a Kevin Costner movie rather than on real data.
(Excerpt) Read more at cato-at-liberty.org ...
I agree.
but I find the train from Seattle to Portland a good deal, and also the train from NYC to D.C.
Shhhhh. Willie Green will be here soon
I think I made him mad already today.
“...a nation of 120+ million people (with nine more currently under construction)...”
-
That gave me a chuckle.
There's something oddly familiar about this statement. Now where have I seen such an agrument...? There also seemed to be something about antirail and antiurban racism...
I'm at a loss! Can any of you folks help me out?
You should add that, to nations such as China, citizens are government property to be used as a renewable resource. This is something America's left has been trying to emulate for decades.
Were you being an Antiurbanite, a train-hating bigot or a newbie?
;-)
Antiurbanite 90%
Train-hating 2%
Bigot 8%
newgie 0.4%
Sorry I just can't give 110%.
LOL!
According to Willie, I’m delusional because I want to limit governmental involvement in my healthcare and transportation.
Willie welcomes a fascist marxist takeover of our nation, as long as his master throws him some table scraps. He doesn’t seem to understand that the type of government he would tolerate tends to kill the useless eaters. Willie’s own comments on his health does not indicate he’s very productive.
Don't sweat it.
It's no surprise Willie avoided this thread. Libs consistantly run from truth like a vampire flees holy water.
Do you really see Willie trying to add his propaganda to a thread where the original article includes;
The rail advocates go ballistic whenever anyone questions their fantasies, mostly engaging in ad hominem attacks (“you must be paid by the oil companies!”) or accusing skeptics of lying about rail...
Any post by Willie would simply confirm the article's veracity.
Now Green Willie posted a airport scanner article.
Willie doesn’t realize, or chooses to ignore, that if his dream is realized, and people are forced to use rail instead of air or passenger car, his trains would become a very attractive terrorist target.
After a few incidents such as the terrorist bombing on the British trains, these same machines would show up at railroad platforms.
Although the idea of going on that thread and tweaking Willie’s nose is amusing, I think I’ll leave him to languish in his delusions.
2700 pounds of Dynamite caught fire in a rail car in Boulder Colorado in 1907 and blew up when the water form the fire department hit the car. It killed 7 and broke windows all over Boulder. Now they have Propane tanker cars that can wipe out a 1 mile radius and they will have 20 of them per train. OUCH
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