Detours on a Super-Highway

Fort Worth Weekly ^ | January 10, 2007 | Peter Gorman

[mgstarr]

As someone who'd spent far too much time on the 405, 10, and 101, 6 lanes doesn't impress me in the least.

And for those of you who really think they're going to build a high speed rail line, you're delusional. I'd love it if were viable, but it isn't and will not be built.

[B-Chan]

No, I mean the ones that make a profit every year despite having to build and maintain their own infrastructure. You know, like Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific. Every mile of track, every signal, and every switchyard the railroads use is paid for out of their investors' pocket. Meanwhile, the motor freight industry rides on government-owned and maintained highways and the airlines fly from government-owned airport to government-owned airport using government-owned navigational systems.

Railroads (including passenger rail) are a strategic necessity and vital for national defense. While the government has no business running a railroad directly, it is the government's responsibility to maintain a modern rail infrastructure just as it maintains modern ports, freeways, and airports.

[T-Bird45]

I see somebody got a new supply of asbestos underwear for Christmas. How are they holding up so far?? Think the supply will outlast this thread??

[tomkat]

I'm ready to fork over my $300 to drive on them

sadlyLMAO

You're obviously in possesion of more dollars than sense

[Seadog Bytes]

Thanks!

"SMART GROWTH"...
...Isn't.

[Smokin' Joe]

“The initial plan for the TTC calls for the taking, by eminent domain, of 580,000 acres of private Texas property,” said Terri Hall, regional director of the San Antonio Toll Party. “That’s more than 900 square miles. And there are secondary components to the TTC that would bring that number up to 1 million acres. That’s going to cut the state into pieces.”

And because it is being done not by the State per se, but a private, for profit concern, the Kelo decision makes it all possible.

Coincidence?

[lewislynn]

It's about time road users were required to pay for the use of infrastructure the way the railroads do.

Every mile of track, every signal, and every switchyard the railroads use is paid for out of their investors' pocket. Meanwhile, the motor freight industry rides on government-owned and maintained highways...

Since they are the only ones using it for profit that's the way it should be. Apparently you aren't aware of the federal taxes truckers pay every year.

Unless they're making payments I'm pretty sure the the railroad's "right of ways" are a gift from the American taxpayer.

Try building, maintaining or even keeping a railroad in business without involving a truck....The opposite is not true.

[meyer]

Coincidence?

Nope!

I think that in future versions of Websters' dictionary, one of the definitions of "Kelo" will be "suppository".

[Smokin' Joe]

I think you are close, but in common useage, it will be a verb...

[TXnMA]

Overpasses are a very big deal. If TTC-69 passes between me and Atlanta, Texas, (where we now buy all our supplies) we most likely will be forced to re-direct all our business ito Vivian, Lousiana.

But that is not the big bad news for Texas towns like Atlanta and Cass County Texas.

In addition to losing tax revenue from the land taken for the ROW, slicing up of agricultural tracts will probably depress taxable land values.

Worse, with Marshall and I-20 to our south, and I-30 and Texarkana to the north of us, the likelihood of a TTC access point in Cass County is slim to none. Almost certainly we will lose much of the cash flow (now derived from US 59 traffic) upon which most of the area's economy now depends.

Bottom line: the TTC would be the economic death of most rural Texas counties through which it passes.