Daily Willie Green Choo-Choo thread.
Promoting 19th Century technology for the 21st Century.
Posted on 08/17/2010 4:00:59 AM PDT by Willie Green
You are advocating a big government project.
Yes, just like the Interstate Highway system was a big government project.
Global Oil supplies are dwindling and we need to develop more fuel efficient modes of transportation that are less dependent on Oil.
Then once you get to the destination you have no car to get where you really want to be!
Madison is a civilized community
Wherever they decide to locate their station, I'm certain it will have provisions for taxi/bus service, rental cars, local light-rail, etc, etc.
They're not going to build a station to strand people in the middle of nowhere.
Our train will be costly and inconvenient.Cost overruns should be blamed on the obstructionists who are attempting to limit travel options merely to give us no choice other than filling our gas tanks with overpriced fuel.
What’s wrong with buses?
All these trains are utter nonsense and a gift to unions.
I believe in private roads, private hospitals etc.
government programs don’t work and if you keep adding government programs “oh do this it is so good” then you WILL get socialism which is worse than ANYTHING.
I will try to explain some of why government programs can never work when I have time.
You believe government can do things better than private companies and the free market, yet government most always contracts work like roads out to private companies and no fully socialist economy ever has worked . No government is producing a product like a car, cell phone , notebook computer. And there is a reason why and that is becuase they can’t. People like you who are socialists (not an insult but a fact because you believe government can do things better than capitalism which is private companies and freedom). Not only can private companies do things 1000 times better and more efficiently but government programs end in socialism and that is worse than anything.And socialism doesn’t work at ALL, period , FACT and I can prove it.
No they are not. What's dwindling is the political will to go get them. Rail Carnival Barkers and other associated socialist Greens are the only people in favor of these Government owned rail boondoggles.
I believe in private roads, private hospitals etc.
Yes, I am aware of that.
"Private" clubs have long cherished their exclusivity and discriminatory practices.
That's one reason why I so strongly believe that public infrastructure should remain public.
Which is why I was surprised they call 120mph ‘high speed.’
The Shinkansen tracks, when not elevated, are surrounded by walls at least as high as the bottom deck of the train.
What private roads have been built in the US?
Saw something in the Shepard Depressed about this last week. The writer wrote about the $800 million cost which would be paid by the federal government, else that money would go to someone else’s train.
Same thing happened in Minnesota a decade or so ago. Gov. Turnbuckle insisted we build the first leg of a Twin Cities rail “system” because otherwise we wouldn’t get the $300 mill in federal funding for our $600 mill line. Of course actual, DIRECT cost came to over $800 million for an 16-mile, 11-stop line from downtown Mpls to the Sprawl of America. Plus the hidden costs not included in the original grant application, like the electric company having to move underground substations at their own expense and the $10 million per year operating deficit.
Ventura railroaded the project through, despite SEVERAL studies over the decades that showed there was NO economically viable corridors in the Twin Cities! This line became known as the Metro Transit Hiawatha Line (as if there were another line to confuse it with). When the local rag was looking for a nickname for the MTHL, my immediate response was “The Motherlode.” It of course seriously disrupted traffic and has resulted in deaths.
In the new push to slap another money-eating line from Mpls to St. Paul down University Ave. (instead of a block away which would disrupt far fewer businesses), I found it particularly funny that after plans were practically approved, the local PBS station finally complained that that route would disturb their studios, and that wasn’t acceptable.
“Cost overruns should be blamed on the obstructionists”
Bwahahahahahahahaha! Surely nobody could ever find a government project that didn’t come in on-time and on-budget.
“I’m certain it will have provisions for taxi/bus service, rental cars, local light-rail, etc, etc.”
Sounds like a great deal to subsidize every trip to Madistan so that the arrivee can spend even more money on a rental pollution spewer!
I’ve ridden the hiawatha line from the airport to downtown. One thing I liked is that nobody cared if I had alcohol in my suitcase.
To answer my own question, I did find;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_highways_in_the_United_States
It seems like many of these were gov’t built and then sold to private firms, but there are a few exceptions, like the Dalton Highway and Dulles Greenway, though it’s not clear if they had to buy the land outright in any case.
Not to side with WillieGreen, but the cost to a taxpayer for driving their car on the interstate is NOT merely 4 gallons of gas, one way. Add in your insurance, maintenance, licenses, registration, fees, moving violation fines, parking costs... then add in the portion of all your other taxes that go to pay for constructing and maintaining interstate highway infrastructure. If there is a profitable market for passenger rail between any 2 points, private enterprise would be all over it.
Daily Willie Green Choo-Choo thread.
Promoting 19th Century technology for the 21st Century.
I agree the indirect costs probably push $1/mile traveled.
But like you say, *IF* passenger rail was really a good gig (like air travel) then brands like Delta, Air Tran perhaps UPS and even Marriott would be on it.
Willie, why don’t you just STFU and take your Carpet Bagging ass back up North where you belong. It’s an embarrasment that you currently reside in Texas.
I used to live near Gonzales — very very small town — all rural there —there’s no way to get anywhere once you would get off the train. Baton Rouge is a series of subdivisions and malls — no city there to speak of.
I used to live near Gonzales — very very small town — all rural there —there’s no way to get anywhere once you would get off the train. Baton Rouge is a series of subdivisions and malls — no city there to speak of.
Willie, why don’t you just STFU and take your Carpet Bagging ass back up North where you belong. It’s an embarrasment that you currently reside in Texas.
I think Texas neo-Confederate bigotry is an embarrassment to the rest of the nation.
“I think Texas neo-Confederate bigotry is an embarrassment to the rest of the nation.”
ROTFLMAO! Damn, you’re as FOS as a Christmas Turkey!
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