Posted on 06/07/2010 7:45:38 AM PDT by Willie Green
Who said it was smart in the first place?
You’re right. The German train system is also an example.
Guilty in that they were operating a deep water drill and there was an accident. They certainly didn't do this on purpose.
why build ONE train when you can build millions of self driving cars?
Kill anything green!!!!
If it doesn’t run on oil it ain’t worth building!
Because in China there is ONE party that is the ONE government and ONE train makes it easier to spy on every ONE.
Hi WG;)
Now that the US has abandoned the space program; perhaps mass transit will be the beneficiary of all that brain power.
There was a TV documentary recently on the crumbling of our infrastructure: highways, bridges, tunnels and power grids.
Yes, we treasure our highways and love the freedom of personal automobiles, but there is room for high speed transit. Hate to see FReepers clinging to just one option. An open mind is not an empty one.
sod;)
Because I don’t want traffic into Houston backed all the way up to Tulsa?
If it doesn’t run on oil it ain’t worth building!
Great, so at today's trade deficit ($226 billion), it wold take about 40 years to get the trillions needed. Boy Willie, you really want that quick!
How about if I stay here, and you stay THERE full time?
But but but - Willie, your trains! Your precious trains! You want to delay them for decades (assuming that - with the tariffs our economy doesn't completely crash and turn that financing into centuries) before you can ride them! Poor Willie, living without your trains...
Facts are so inconvenient, aren’t they? I’m just wondering if any of these train-freaks will admit they’d love to subsidize riders to the tune of thousands of dollars. Admit their desires, rather than trying to hide behind words like green and sustainable...
Great, so at today's trade deficit ($226 billion), it wold take about 40 years to get the trillions needed. Boy Willie, you really want that quick!
That's ten years faster than the fifty year period that you were talking about.
“Amtrak subsidies cost $32 per passenger.”
“That political misinformation was funded by The Pew Charitable Trust, which is basicly a tax shelter for the heirs of the Sun Oil Company.”
Really? So apparently the former Amtrak President Alex Kummant didn’t know what he was talking about when he said in 2008:
“If you actually look at the amount of public capital that flows into the rail network per passenger, it’s like $40 a passenger for Amtrak”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSIB27628520080612?sp=true
Guilt of what exactly? Were they the ones drilling the well? Was it their rig? Please be specific of their guilt, or are you just parroting the establishmedia talking points to promote your agenda?
Pray for America
Read again, Willie - the tracks will last about 50 years before needing replacement...
But your opinion is to hold off for 40+ years (consider the time value of money, Willie - closer to 100 years if ever)? Don’t want to tax or charge fair market costs to deploy this system? Wait for a century until we can deploy?
No you're wrong. They did do it on purpose. BP was trying to waste hundreds of millions of barrels of valuable products. BP intended to pollute the Gulf. BP wanted to incur the wrath of the world. BP intended to rapidly shed market cap. BP wanted to lose investor value. BP thought it would be great business planning to be in litigation about this for another generation. < /sarcasm>
Seriously, the "blamers" like Obama Jr and Willie see this accident as just another "crisis" upon which an ulterior agenda can be pursued.
“Facts are so inconvenient, aren’t they? I’m just wondering if any of these train-freaks will admit they’d love to subsidize riders to the tune of thousands of dollars. Admit their desires, rather than trying to hide behind words like green and sustainable...”
Hey Soldier, that’s how they did it in Austin. They just finished building the thing at a cost of well over a billion dollars, and now they have about 300 riders a day. They should have just blown the money on whores and coke, at least the whores wouldn’t impede traffic.
Austin and a billion? Amateurs... Come to Seattle where we spent over $2 BILLION on a 14 mile run. We spent $180 million per mile. Most expensive in the US (actually, I think the world) by far! And we ran it right where people do NOT commute - from Downtown Seattle, through the central district (highest crime, poverty, and unemployment in the city), bypass the largest shopping mall in 20 miles, and stop a quarter mile short of the airport (it was going to stop 3 miles short).
Seattle is, as you would expect, 100% Democrat controlled. Democrat Governor, state Legislature, county executive, county council, mayor, and city council. From the White House to City Hall, it’s Democrats the whole way, and now the concern is how to overcome $50 million deficits for the next 10 years (taxes are the solution, of course).
But the supporters are quick to point out that it carries 2000 people a day! Hey, I use it occasionally, too... Free parking at the Tukwila park-and-ride, then I pay $1.75 to ride for 2 minutes to the airport. No need to pay $25 to park at the airport, or $15 at a park-and-ride near the airport, I can pay (if I choose - it’s on the honor system - the 3 times in the last 6 months I’ve used it I’ve never seen a transit cop or ticket checker) $3.50 for 4 minutes of commute for those days I fly out in the morning and back in the evening.
And I saw at least 2 dozen people do the same thing on the 7 AM train last Wednesday; the train was empty, but there were about 25 of us standing, waiting for it to arrive, all with computers and flight bags, dressed and ready to go for one-day business flights! Same thing on my return at 7:40 PM - 30 people got on at SeaTac airport, and all of us got off at Tukwila.
My guess is that at least half the daily ridership is commuters saving $20 a day by taking a 2 minute train ride (that comes every 15 minutes, by the way). So we spent $2 billion in up-front capital, and well over $7 billion by the time the bonds are paid off (in 30 years), to move 1000 people each work day. That’s $28,000 per person per year. For a train that nominally costs $2.50 each way, travels 80% of its run at grade with traffic (meaning it’s stuck in traffic as well), and even charges by the honor system.
But Willie and his train boys are all excited about it, such good returns on train investment here in the US where distances are huge, populations are spread out, and ridership is sparse. What better way to spend trillions more than to make some nice, outmoded, too slow, too expensive trains!
AND the payment of massive tax subsidies, typically amounting to 85% of the fare.
And those taxes are paid by those who derive NO benefit from the toy trains whatsoever.
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