Posted on 08/12/2010 6:52:11 AM PDT by Willie Green
The federal government has the chance to rebuild the nation's passenger rail service by upgrading Amtrak's aging fleet of locomotives. We must seize that opportunity.
The idea is for Amtrak to secure loan guarantees under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program to revitalize its fleet with higher-speed, diesel-electric locomotives that would reach speeds between 110 and 124 mph. Up to $35 billion is available under the program, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's website.
If it happens, GE Transportation, as the top locomotive manufacturer in the United States, would be poised perfectly to compete for the Amtrak contract.
The idea is good for Amtrak, good for GE Transportation, good for GE's 4,000 Erie employees, good for its 700 Grove City employees, good for GE's 250 suppliers in Pennsylvania alone and, most of all, this is a great idea for America's traveling public.
In recent days, the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership has led support of the plan, and they deserve credit for doing so. First Erie City Council stepped forward in support, followed by Erie County Executive Barry Grossman, County Council and Mayor Joe Sinnott.
The plan would give Amtrak's fleet better fuel efficiency, lower emissions and higher speed. GE Transportation has said the new locomotives would deliver an estimated fuel savings of 15 percent "and an emission reduction of approximately 60 percent" compared to the older locomotives still in service.
(Excerpt) Read more at goerie.com ...
Like there is something different now than in the last 30 years when Amtrak has been squandering the taxpayers' hard earned money in paying inflated salaries to government appartchicks like Michael Dukakis etc. Sorry Willie this is just the same old same old. bribing the employees of GE who make the locomotives with more taxpayer pelf is not going to change the (lack of) demand for passenger rail services. Just more government waste with the parasites who benefit cheering.
This would be a good idea if Amtrak were a private business instead of a failed government run enterprise. Amtrak even with new locomotives would continue to need massive government subsidies.
I refuse to pay for rail service for others to use. If private industry thinks passenger rail service will make money then they will build it themselves. The government has no business in the transportation service and they certainly don’t need to take my money to support it.
110 mph ?
Isnt that like speeding?
110 mph ?
Isnt that like speeding?
Diverted funds from the Hwy "Trust" Fund?
Was the Sharps really the best?
Yes.
That's cuz this ain't about the trains running on time or improving track conditions. This is yet another bone for GE.....and if it happens it should remove any doubt about how deep in the sheets the Dims are with big, corrupt bidness.....
Oh, yes, WE MUST! Drowning in a sea of debt, buying our own debt (which is like breathing the water), with massive government regulations piling on more and more debt, and we NEED TO BUY MORE CHOO CHOO TRAINS!
I swear, Marxism has driven these people clean out of their minds.
That's what you think. If you pay taxes you ARE paying for rail services for others.
Who knew passenger train travel was a growth industry?
Shoosh, our financial worries are over. Yeah!!!
No... not really...
Investment in energy efficient transportation infrastructure certainly helps, but we have structural economic problems that go far deeper than that.
We need to reverse the idiotic trade policies that are sucking the lifeblood out our nation and put an absolute end to the political class pursuit of a dumbed-down, impoverished, low-wage, low-benefit, suvservient population.
The GOP has become merely the twin clone of the 'Rat poverty pimps.
We need to place a revenue tariff on all imported goods to replenish our Treasury while also lowering other forms of domestic taxation to bring our wealth creating industries and jobs back to America. Unless we reverse the trade policies that undermine our domestic economy, our political "leaders" are leading us over the financial cliff.
GE/Democrats/Unions.....Fluster Cuck!
I refuse to pay for rail service for others to use.
Then you must refuse to pay your Federal taxes or fill out a 1040, because we’ve all been paying for it since around 1970. (I hear Leavenworth, Kansas is lovely this time of year)
GE/Democrats/Unions.....Fluster Cuck!
GE/Democrats/Unions/NBC/MSNBC/Keith Olbermann/Rachel Maddow/Brian Williams/David Letterman
Even bigger fuster cluck!
While trains are romantic (to some of us older folk)...they simply aren’t practical for anything other than freight. May as well give GE a contract to streamline the Prarie Schooner and give Johns Hopkins a multi million dollar grant to genetically engineer faster oxen.
First of all, the GE products used by Amtrak are not designed for both freight or passenger service. The “P” in P32, P40 and P42 stands for passenger. These Genesis locomotives have lighter weight monocoque bodies and are supplied with gear ratios suitable for greater efficiency at high speed versus greater tractive power needed for freight units.
Secondly, multiple diesel units are nothing new. They have been in use since 1949. They were built by Budd and were called RDC cars. They are suitable for low density, short runs but are not used for high traffic routes or long runs.
“We need to reverse the idiotic trade policies that are sucking the lifeblood out our nation and put an absolute end to the political class pursuit of a dumbed-down, impoverished, low-wage, low-benefit, suvservient population.”
Since train travel is one of the most expensive forms of travel per passenger mile, investing in it is counter productive. If you want a full on national approach for investment I think you would need to consider (1) nuclear, (2) coal to oil, and (3) and oil/natural gas exploration. The benefits to these three areas is it will reduce the cost of energy in total and achieve energy independence. Lower cost of energy is one of the big inputs to profitablility. New technologies (coal-oil, pebble reactors, and offshore rigs) would generate meaningful salaries and position our country as the leader in serious businesses. Pissing money away on solar and choo choo trains is a waste of capital and most importantly a diversion from the future.
You do understand, of course, that those revenue tariffs on imported goods will be paid by American citizens who are already overburdened by taxes and stand to see another hike come January 2011.
On the topic of the locomotives, I actually think this locomotive purchase is wise. One of the hallmarks of government-run enterprises is the failure to maintain and replace the capital stock. That failure then tends to increase operational losses.
If we're going to have Amtrak (and, folks, we are), then its equipment might as well be properly-funded.
Since train travel is one of the most expensive forms of travel per passenger mile,
Actually the exact opposite is true, but I've come to expect such disinformation from the Global Oil Pimps.
Passenger rail systems are not only more fuel efficient per passenger-mile compared to individual automobiles, they are also much more durable and have longer ecoomic lifespans. So when you tally up all the passenger miles they accumulate over the course of 20, 30.. even sometimes 40 years of service, they are a MUCH more efficient use of capital than the tens of thousands of individual automobiles that would have to be purchased to accumulate the same number of passenger-miles.
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