Posted on 10/07/2019 5:25:12 AM PDT by Gamecock
The europeons can move a lot of people to prison camps in the next war efficiently.....
BNSF is working to add a second track across hundreds of miles where single track is now operating. They are working to build a second bridge across Lake Pend Oreille to ease congestion and slow downs. The locals are really worried about hazardous cargo derailments ruining the beautiful lake.
” - we move freight, they move people.”
Especially Jews. They were really good at that.
They sure have us beat in passenger rail service though. I just spent the past week in Europe traveling extensively via railroads. It’s fantastic. Wish we had it here
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In a country 3,000 miles wide, rail is the economically cheapest way to move a pound of freight. Air travel is the cheapest way, and the fastest, to move a pound of people.
You think Amtrak is what is holding back US passenger rail?
Actually it is more efficient to move them packed into box cars than passenger cars, so we have them beat there.
I just got back from Scotland and used the trains. Yes, it was nice. But over there they have regular everyday people using the trains. Think about what it would be like here. When I was younger I used Greyhound bus to get around. Now I wouldn’t ride the bus. They’re full of trashy people. The trains would wind up the same way.
We need Supertrain.
Amazing...I guess 2 or 3 more at the rear.
Ouch! That’s gotta’ leave a mark....
Sometimes you see seven in front. There are often two in the middle of the train these days.
What is this train thread without Willlie Green?
Maybe their demand for cheap sh*t from China isn’t as high as ours.
In a couple of years we are supposed to have a bullet train going from Miami to Orlando in just 28 minutes!
A lot of oil being freighted through NC as well. I noticed a marked increase after Trump was elected.
I think that sums it up pretty well. And the beauty of free-market economics - the market will find the best solution.
This is absolutely true. I spent several years lobbying on Capitol Hill for passenger rail transport. The problem isn't the idea -- the high-speed rail system in California is a perfectly developed notion -- it's the implementation of it. There's too many hands in the pot.
From the politicians, to the environmentalists, to the regulatory agencies, to the NIMBYs, to the transportation authorities, to the taxation agencies, to the suppliers and vendors, once everyone takes their cut, the cost is too high.
It's not just rail. We can hardly build roadways effectively and efficiently any longer. Look how many years and how much money it takes just to add a few lanes to an existing highway.
Most of our freight rail lines are along corridors that have been in place for decades -- if not over a century. Passenger rail systems need new throughways and cannot, in most cases, share freight lines. Until we yank the extra hands out of the pot, passenger rail in this country will remain a fantasy.
Would the Sh!T really be that much more expense if made in the USA? I doubt it. That's the same we offshored for nothing really.
This article ignores important distinctions between Europe and USA. Two obvious ones are the immense distances in the US that allow unit trains and container trains to be efficient. It makes no sense to load up a huge train to travel to Frankfurt or Zurich.
Also, the dispersed destinations of Europe cause the use of smaller trains that end closer to the final user to make more economic sense. Our system has slowly excluded small feeder lines and industrial users, who have now turned to truck transport. That’s a trade-off Europe has not been willing to make, and we may yet regret.
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