Posted on 08/08/2010 5:59:18 AM PDT by Willie Green
Go back to my original post, which you misunderstood as my having asked you to pay for my ‘comfort’. I stated that I, personally, enjoy the experience of travelling by train, and that I found the assertion in the original article that some of the new high-speed rail systems in Europe are now proving to be financially profitable an interesting point.
Somehow you found this offensive - which I guess, says more about you than about me. Just how is pointing this out ‘attacking you’? If you make a point I disagree with, sure, I’ll post my disagreement and explain it. We can then have a (hopefully) civilized discussion on it.
But FTR, I largely agree with your last post: this isn’t something that government should be stepping in and paying for. More research is needed into whether such a system could ever be profitable in the US. Where we perhaps differ is simply in the fact that I’m not convinced that at some point in the future, the market may not indeed move forward on its own on this. The train is still evolving and I don’t believe it is necessarily yet consigned to the dustbin of history.
This is merely a personal opinion: time may well prove me wrong. But I find it odd that some on this site find such an opinion somehow ‘un-conservative’ and thus offensive. Thus my comment - are you simply looking for a stick to grab the wrong end of?
I don't know if you read the caveats at the bottom of the article or not, but your source lacks any reference to sources. Matters not
Footnote #43, provided in the table heading, leads directly to Transportation Energy Data Book at the Center for Transportation Analysis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
But suppose you want to go from Port Royal, VA to Cape May NJ. Can't be done by train.
AH, you say, "all we have to do is build more feeder lines to central hubs".
No, I would say that it's intellectually dishonest to randomly select two minor-sized communities with no obvious need for a high-volume passenger connection between the two, and then whine that you can't get from Point A to Point B by train.
That being said, this isn't Europe. The infrastructure of this country is older than Europe's; theirs having been rebuilt almost from scratch after W.W. II
No we are not Europe.
Sixty years ago, post-WWII Europe's transportation & industrial infrastructure was a shambles, and with scant petroleum resources of their own, they couldn't afford the luxury of highway and airline development.
OTOH, our post-war transportation and industrial infrastructure emerged not only unscathed, but also with a huge excess of wartime production capacity that had to convert to civilian applications. It was a period when America's bountiful resources seemed limitless.
But that was all 50~60 years ago...
The Rest of the World has long recovered from the ravishes of WWII, and together with Third World development, is rapidly depleting the global supply of "Easy Oil".
Yet the Global Oil Parasites maintain an illusion of infinite oil supply to feed our addiction to highway and airline transportation until they suck the last drop of blood from the American Middle Class taxpayer.
‘research has been done just like it’s been done on 2nd amend, fag ‘rites’,keynesian economics’
= ‘I’ve read an opinion somewhere which I happen to agree with. Therefore as far as I’m concerned all other opinions are irrelevant and any further research is a waste of time.’
Easiest thing in the world to write ‘period’ after some blanket statement while providing no evidence to support it whatsoever. Is that supposed to make people think you’ve proved or demonstrated something? If you have any rational evidence or source for such a statement, do provide it. Otherwise, it’s just a meaningless assertion without any substance. I might as well state ‘the moon is made of cheese. period.’
You’re right YOU might as well write the moon is made of green cheese. It would fit in well with your passenger train assertions.
I should waste my time doing your homework? Keep writing....better to keep ones mouth closed and be thot ignorant than to open it and remove all doubt
lol - Can’t you even think of your own quote?
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