Stop listening to Europe, stop listening to the conservatives, do what has worked in the past. What got us out of the Great Depression was production: massive industrial production to support the allies in World War Two.
We need production for this country now. We need to build rapid rail to catch up to those allies from World War Two. France has the TGV. China is building its rapid rail system. It’s time we joined the movement. We need to go back to the future and become a country that builds things. It’ll create jobs. It’ll catch us up to the rest of the world. It’ll cut our reliance on oil. It’ll give us hope you can believe in.
Look, Lincoln built the continental railroads even in the midst of the Civil War. Ike built the inter-state highway system in the supposedly do-nothing Fifties.
President Obama… Just do it!
Combine them both: trains and cars.
It would be really nice to just drive to the train depot, drive the car onto a train, get out and move to a passenger wagon, and then upon arriving at the destination, just drive the car off the train.
High speed, comfort and convenience all tied together. They do it with the Chunnel, why can’t we do it here?
an-ass-sheepdog: Stop dragging your knuckles. The only way to pay for large national projects is to share the costs nationally. You obviously belong to the party of “me! me! me!… how does it benefit me!” Basically acting like a 5 year old, where if it doesn’t benefit you directly, you want nothing to do with it, and if it is good for America, but gives you no direct benefit, then America be damned.
Instead, we should spend our money anyway in highly productive and profitable projects like this one:
$30 Billion more for the war in Afghanistan:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/afghanistan-30-billion-war-funding_n_633300.html
Welcome back, John.
SPSFan… the total dollar amount of subsidy divided by the total number of non-northeast corridor tickets = $100/ticket. Insanity.
Simonsez, As for “airline subsidies”.
Airline PASSENGERS pay for airports and air traffic control through specific taxes and fees on tickets. There is currently a surplus of over $10 billion in the airport fund from taxes paid but not spent.
Let’s not forget that most railroads outside the east coast were originally GIVEN the right-of-way and significant land on either side of the tracks. This incredible gift of wealth from the US taxpayers led many railroads to become real estate operations with trains as a hobby in the 20th century.
Just because trains work well in Europe and Japan does not necessarily mean that they will work as well here. Our country is so much bigger than and our population is more spread out. Sure, it is much cheaper and easier to lay track for France and its 550,000 sq km land mass. We have approximately 9,500,000 sq km to cover. They have around 130 people living per sq km and we only have 30 people per sq km. Japan has a land mass of 375,000 sq km and a density of close to 340 people per sq km.
It just seems reasonable to me that what works for them might not work as well for us because of the difference in our sizes and population densities. Now, adding more trains to the north-east where we have higher population densities might make some sense. But I highly doubt we need to be focusing on a national solution to a regional problem.
Stats found at http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/world_statistics_by_area.htm
#4 bac – Currently, the proposed high speed rail terminal will be in northern Downtown Tampa. Tourists to Gulf beaches will still need to navigate Bay area roads, highways and bridges. The terminal area could also have large parking lots, and rental care agency lots (similar to Tampa International Airport about 8 miles away. Why isn’t high speed rail going to TIA – another story.) Ground is supposed to break by Spring 2011. My gut feeling is that Miami-Orlando would have worked out better.
“Stop listening to Europe”. What does Chris Matthews mean? Europe has much better rail now and their austerity measures may actually work for them.
The arrangement of the largest cities in Texas makes high-speed rail connecting the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to Austin, San Antonio and Houston eminently practical, but every time anyone mentions the idea, huge armies of airline lobbyists leap into action, passing out beaucoup moolah, er, I mean “campaign contributions” and issuing press releases like artillery salvos and squash the project like a bug.
I strongly suspect the same is true for most states and probably the entire nation.