I don’t fly. I like the train. Geeze, now I’m a Rino. I get so tired of not being allowed to be a REAL Republican because I don’t agree with every single thing certain FReepers have decided upon. I would love to see a good PRIVATE rail system, btw. But you don’t have to hate passenger trains to be a conservative.
Nobody hates passenger trains, but they're not PRIVATE when taxpayers foot the bill.
Nobody is protesting private rail, just government sponsored rail with money we ain't got to support a system only libtards in the east will be able to scam huge amounts of money from. And yes, only RINOs would support an Obama rip-off initiative, so if you want to self-identify yourself as a RINO because you support this monstrosity, well its your call.
We all would. But if there is no profit in it......etc., etc..
I agree! We need a good high-speed rail system built by the private sector. It should have been done decades ago. The government will only make it a bureaucratic nightmare costing us billions.
Trains are bulky, slow, time consuming and dollar consuming. Just the track alone for national high-speed rail would cost far more than tens of thousands of state-of-the-art airliners and the airports and runways to accommodate them.
They would not solve the security problem experienced at airports, as they would also be targeted by Islamixedup Jihadists.
There is absolutely no way that high-speed rail from anywhere to anywhere else can be economically justified. So in steps the government to spend our money to facilitate a bad idea. Soooo typical.
“I don’t fly. I like the train. Geeze, now I’m a Rino. I get so tired of not being allowed to be a REAL Republican because I don’t agree with every single thing certain FReepers have decided upon. I would love to see a good PRIVATE rail system, btw. But you don’t have to hate passenger trains to be a conservative.”
I love the train too - and I take my kids on it every chance we get. But when there is NO ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION for throwing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of my grandkids money into these pits I get a bit ticked off.
Show me a damn study where spending this kind of money has any chance of paying itself back (and none of this carbon crap). Every train system that I’ve seen started in the past 40 years has been a total RAT HOLE for money and a DISASTER.
YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO THROW MY (future) GRANDKIDS FUTURE AWAY. We already have trains, it’s Amtrak - and it’s only use is for old, rich, people to party on.
If you want these vaunted high-speed trains, then find PRIVATE FINANCING for it. I’ll even support you in clearing the right-of-ways - even liability caps. But GOOD LUCK WITH THAT - the numbers simply DO NOT WORK.
Being a RINO is not about if you do or don’t like trains, it is about if you want the government to finance, build, and subsidize rail systems. I am sure everyone here would have no problem at all with private rail.
I like the train, too, and I don’t see why trains in themselves are offensive to Freepers.
I think - as my Congressman, John Mica stated - that they should be private businesses, although given the nature of the beast, some public funding may be involved. After all, highways are publicly funded, and I don’t notice Freepers complaining about that, except when we get the bridge-to-nowhere or other pork projects.
But they have to be trains that are commercially viable and go between points to which people really want or need to travel, not like the Orlando to Tampa high speed rail, which is clearly pork and not needed in any way and which Mica is fighting. On the other hand, he’s very much in favor of a Florida coast passenger rail from Jacksonville to Miami, which would do a lot for the towns along the route and also for the traffic problems in and around Miami. Flagler made his fortune (well, one of his fortunes) on the East Coast Florida Railway, which was essentially the thing that let Miami and Florida in general boom, back before train travel dropped off.
I think the problem is when the government gets into management of the railroads. Amtrak, which is another one of those hybrid institutions like the Post Office, in the NE should be a money-making operation because of the high ridership, but somehow it’s not.
Still, if Freepers don’t want any money spent on trains (which are a fast, efficient and safe way of travel and have no political implications), they should apply the same standard to highways and go out and construct their own personal interstates.
lea, no one is calling you a RINO because you like to ride the train . . . it’s because of the dependency of Government Spending vs. private capital. This country is flat broke and yet our representatives continue to believe their only function is to spend more.
I commute by train to work. But I also don’t want these high-speed rail boondoggles. Rail needs to be able to pay for itself.
Should read:
“I don’t fly. I like the train - ‘cause I'm not groped.”
;-)
Perhaps the disagreement comes down to private trains versus government trains. When the trans-continental rail lines were built, the two more southern routes were heavily government subsidized. They were financial alligators from then to now.
The northernmost route was privately financed and was a cash cow. Cash cow, as in “Moola”. Lots and lots of MOOLA!
Only in limited circumstances are trains acceptable. With newer sources of energy coming on-line in the foreseeable future, why invest in a Steam Age transportation modality when it is about to become extinct?
Only gooberment goobers with visions of skimmed funds dancing before their little piggy eyes would squander public funds on such a prodigious waste.
This article is not about whether people enjoy traveling by train or not; it is about the government funding a train system in the US. We did it already.
Promised rider fees did not begin to cover the expense. The government ran the trains to serve itself and it’s unions. Crime on the trains was too risky for people to use them. They were safer driving their cars. Crime in neighborhoods that were forced to host train stations was a huge problem.
Liberals played this entitlement like a drum. They riled up train riders (government employee unions)against those who demanded the trains be self sustaining. The cost and size of the train service was without end. Most of the public did not even use the service they paid for with their taxes. They mostly served leftist power in the cities. Liberals played the train service against highway funding. To fix or build a road or bridge was to take money away from the train entitlement...
I remember all this.
rite brytlea
NE CORRIDOR RAIL IS WORKING
people need to think - not just have knee-jerk reactions.
I love trains but I know I can’t buy one when I have zero in the bank and in charge of the country!!!
I doubt you’d like the train so much if you had to pay what it actually cost to transport you sans any govt. subsidies.
I’m not a Republican but I understand your problem with the overuse of the RINO term.
When high speed (or low speed) trains are economically feasible, they will be built. I understand that you lilke trains, but that’s not the issue. I like a car with 500 horsepower that gets 50 miles to the gallon, but it’s not realistic to expect anyone to build one for me at an affordable price.
Of course the govt can subsidize trains (again) which means they will fail and cost the taxpayers money for no good reason.
Ride the rails all you want. The problem is that you expect the rest of us to pay for your misguided nostalgia. Do you realize how subsidized all the rail crap is? All forms of mass transportation are subsidized by the rest of us through the government stealing our money.
Well, then just what about government funding of passenger rail service (ala AMTRAK) don’t you get? If it is viable for a corportation to make a profit then let them have at it. If it is a government funded profit loser (for its entire life) then why?