Posted on 07/15/2008 8:47:44 AM PDT by mowowie
U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry is taking aim at the Acela bullet train, saying the 8-year-old line meant to zip passengers between Boston and Washington is riddled with speed and safety issues that have thrown its swift mission off track.
“Are you kidding? That train can go 150 miles an hour, (but) it goes that for, what, a couple of miles?” Kerry scoffed. “I want America to have a first-rate high-speed rail system. A high-speed rail that really lives up to the name and gets people there in the time that we ought to be aiming for.”
Kerry plans to file in two weeks a $1 billion bill that will target out-of-date bridges, tunnels and tracks that prevent the train from hitting its 150-mile-per-hour maximum and getting commuters to their destinations faster.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
My money's no object, when this douchebag wants a quicker commute to the job he goes to a couple times a year.
What about the poor starving babies? What about the homeless single moms?
I actually agree with him. High speed rail between some of our major cities would be great.
Someone get this numbskull on the next bullet train to Vietnam.
“I want America to have a first-rate high-speed rail system.”....
And I want John Kerry to stop finding government money pits to throw TAX dollars down!....
That's about a 90 mph average.
Let’s see, Amtrak is a mess. Amtrak is a US Government agency. Go figure.
Let’s see, Amtrak is a mess. Amtrak is a US Government agency. Go figure.
SWIFT trains!
It might be wonderful. Personally, I would like a waterslide from my house to my job.
I just don't look for the government to confiscate other people's wages to build it for me.
Who’s John Kerry?
“The Acela from NYC to Philly is 67 minutes over a distance that is almost exactly 100 miles.
That’s about a 90 mph average.”
that would be good enough for me...Amtrak has enough wrecks as it is...and BTW when we used to take the train from NYC to Baltimore it was packed with riders....I don’t think stepping it up to 150 mph would sell any more seats.
If it makes economic sense to do this, then I support it but would want private investment involved as much as possible. Why fries me is when the northeast corridor gets tax funds lavished on its mass transit and then the politicians from that area pass laws regarding mass transit and environmental restrictions as though the entire nation had that type of “Cadillac” transit service. Telling someone in Boston or NYC or WDC to use mass transit is entirely different than telling someone in Idaho or Montana or most of California to use mass transit.
150 MPH train sounds good until you figure that JF’inK would want it built for the government by the lowest bidder and operated by a government employee that couldn’t get a job with TSA...
No thanks.
Yep, I love riding the trains and regret that this country has not developed a serious coast-to-coast high speed rail system that could compete with the airlines. Once again, short sighted policies of the past, mostly environmental, are biting us in the butt now on this front, among others.
I can picture John Kerry railing against inanimate objects.
jon carry’s got himself at least 3 articles in the Herald today.
The point is that they are doing it effectively. We seem, with the help of Amtrak, greedy unions, and regulation piled on regulations, to be able to supply unlimited levels of less than mediocre service at lower than mediocre speeds.
The unions killed the trains. I’d like to see them hand pick some routes like Chicago to St. Louis. No one should be flying if it’s under 300 miles.
Amtrak is rarely on time where I’m at. THe trains are slow...and take a back seat to freight trains.
Short sited do nothing congress and presidents over the years. BIllions given to the Jessie Jackson’s causes, and Green Peace...
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