US Oks $196.5M for high-speed Chicago-Detroit rail (train to nowhere in particular)

Yahoo ^ | 10/05/11

[Libloather]

US Oks $196.5M for high-speed Chicago-Detroit rail
AP – 25 mins ago

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved $196.5 million for part of a high-speed Amtrak passenger rail link between Chicago and Detroit, Michigan U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow said Wednesday.

The funds now being obligated cover work from Kalamazoo in western Michigan to Dearborn in suburban Detroit, the Democratic lawmakers said.

The grant to the Michigan Department of Transportation will cover track and signal improvements.

[Libloather]

What is it with RATS and trains?

[katiedidit1]

Such a tourist attraction...and must see cities. Everyone wants to visit Detroit and Chicago

[WOBBLY BOB]

the Willie Green Expressway

[traditional1]

Detroit is the "Beirut" of the U.S.A.

Having high speed rail needs only to go in one direction-----> AWAY FROM DEETROIT.

(That is, until the gangs steal the trains)

[katiedidit1]

Such a tourist attraction...and must see cities. Everyone wants to visit Detroit and Chicago. Could stop by and see Obama’s home in Chicago, visit Oprah and even drop by the prison and see if Blago is there OR there is always the mosque, motown and what is left of motor city Detroit.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Oh yeah, I want to take the train to Dee troit.

[SandRat]

Each of the two end train terminals will need an entire Combat Loaded SeaBee Battalion to repair them and a Combat Loaded Battalion of Marines to secure them.

[Wurlitzer]

I don’t understand this at all.

Chicago has great food so why would they need high speed rail to get Soilent Green from Detroit?

Detroit has been destroyed from within and I sure don’t want my hard earned tax dollars going to this obvious effort to buy union jobs.

[boomop1]

That ought to pay for maybe 10 miles.

[katiedidit1]

ha ha ha ha....unbelievable of all cities to pick. Maybe LA to San Fran is next.

[Hugin]

What is it with RATS and trains? The green weenies have a dream of forcing everyone to live in cities, with everything in between designated wilderness areas. They hate cars, because cars make you independent, and they want people dependent on government for everything. Finally unions love them because they create union jobs to build them, then permanent union jobs to run them.

[SandRat]

If they decide to either one they’d need to increase the unit size to a full Brigade of SeaBees and a Brigade of Combat Marines.

[Nepeta]

Sounds like they are getting a deal for the price! Here we are going to have to pay a bit more than half of that for a streetcar that goes a few blocks, from the center of downtown to a Very Scary Neighborhood that is used as a stand-in for Harlem by Hollywood.

Could buses travel the same route? Of course. Why a streetcar? Somebody is raking in the money.

Which answers much of why the left is so thrilled with rail travel.

Trains aren't even that wonderful in Europe. My buddy in Germany said the trains aren't safe for women traveling alone...

[goat granny]

If the train only made stops at each casino in Detroit, it might not lose as much, but its still a loser proposition.

[Wiggins]

Wow. Who would want to go to Detroit these days in the first place? Especially at high speed.

[WOBBLY BOB]

High Speed to Insolvency (Why liberals love trains)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2681147/posts

To progressives, the best thing about railroads is that people riding them are not in automobiles, which are subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.

[Stosh]

For Chicagoans bored with the adventure of taking the Green Line west.

[katiedidit1]

LOL!!!!! think of all the foreign languages spoken..would need an interpreter..or could rob a bank in Chicago and hide out in the mosques in Detroit. 196 million plus..absurd

[SandRat]

You gotta agree that it’s one way to solve the LA Gang Problem.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Libloather.