Posted on 10/14/2010 1:04:05 PM PDT by Willie Green
(IRN)-An environmental group is touting the fuel saving benefits of the train.
In particular, the savings are measured based on the use of the Metra commuter rail system in the Chicago area: 34.8 million of gasoline a year, assuming all the train riders would have made all the same trips by car, with 1.3 people in the car each time, according to the group Environment Illinois.
Metra served 77 million passengers in 2008, with ridership increasing an average of 1 percent per year since 2000. Its busiest line, the BNSF line between Aurora and Chicago, carries an average of 63,200 passengers each weekday.
Environment Illinois is calling for an adjustment of the federal transportation funding formula to support rail as much as roads. Field associate Sophie Huckabay says the current formula rewards states that adopt transportation policies that promote fuel consumption, a perverse incentive, she says.
The train related fuel savings would accrue, Huckabay says, on expanded Metra service further into the hinterlands, to places such as Johnsburg, Rockford, DeKalb and Kankakee, and high-speed rail Downstate.
We don't have "plenty" of oil.
United States Oil Production peaked way back in 1970.
And now we're suffering an anemic economy due to excessive hemorrhaging of money spent on foreign oil.
"Drill Baby Drill" isn't enough.
We need to reduce our consumption as well.
And convert to alternate sources of energy like nuclear power.
These are OBAMA trains. They create OR save fuel.
You have whined incessantly about privately owned freight railroads, which are fuel efficient, hoping that their properties would be seized for passenger service by the federal government, which is not fuel efficient.
Trains are a proven money pit. Every DOT study shows it.
They save fuel...sure...perhaps on paper they do. A lot of assumptions go into ridership for these proposals.
If hauling goods long distances and the rail road is a private venture, those have indeed proven to save fuel...but there is no evidence that ubran train trainsport saves MONEY, which is precisely what they don’t have.
Besides, Ike learned us early, especially in the West...Trains are communist. Roads are the American Way.
Unless train stations begin stopping within walking distance of every home, I think you have to factor in the cost of getting to the train station. Mass transit would work very well if, like Hong Kong for instance, zoning and air rights were scrapped and builders were able to demolish and build structures of any height at will. The problem is that we don’t have these things stateside, which means that housing in high density environments is extremely expensive, since new builds to accommodate a growing population can only be accomplished typically after expensive zoning and court battles.
Somewhat redundant Jim.
B/S.
Non sequitur. We do have plenty of oil; we simply have been prevented from drilling it by leftist, Gaia-worshipping policies. You say "Drill baby drill" won't work, but we haven't tried it yet, sir.
I do agree about nuclear generation of electricity and a general conservation approach, but, sorry, trains still aren't a good idea for all but the most densely-packed areas and corridors.
We’re probably all for reducing dependence on imported oil.
But most of us, including me, don’t want to reduce our way of life to do it. Trains are very limiting. They can’t take you everywhere and you have to travel to stations and wait for them and they aren’t private.
Nuclear with Hydrogen or Battery powered cars are a far better alternative than trains.
I’m ok not drilling our own up to the point that we are liquidating the country to avoid it. I think we might be there now.
However, if oil is continually produced and not finite, then we are stupid for not drilling our own.
They’re gonna save a lot of fuel as the GOP starts killing the plans for them.
Central planning is for commies... and useful idiots like Willie Green.
“He does not like freight trains which do save money. He likes light rail and HS rail.”
That’s an important point — and it needs to be considered seriously, with all the talk about “high speed” passenger rail.
If “high speed” passenger rail displaces freight rail, it will result in *greater* use of fuel, and *increased highway congestion*. Rail is the best mode for medium to long distance freight. If it isn’t moved by train, it’ll be moved by truck. Large trucks use more fuel than freight trains, and they can really clog up a highway.
We are suffering because drilling has been banned/restricted from virtually all of the areas where we know oil exists - north slope of Alaska and the continential shelf off the east, west and gulf coasts. Discoveries in the Bakken shale in N. Dakota/MT show that there is plenty more oil out there. Enviro wackos have successfully manuevered to have them put off limits.
Peak oil? I used to enjoy mocking you Willie. Now I’m starting to feel sorry for you. A great man once said, “Never go full ‘tard!” Advice you could use.
And, if fuel savings is one of the prime directives for building trains, what is the estimate of fuel consumed to construct the rail system and rail stations, purchase all the right-of-ways, build the trains themselves, and then manage and operate an entire national train network including building maintenance, track maintenance, computer network construction and maintenance, labor costs, etc.?
Here's a hint: It's a government boondoggle!
It turns out that oil is fungible, and World oil production hasn't peaked. The oil horizon (years until we run out) goes UP ever year.
Why? Because technology and human ingenuity solves oil scarcity issues: the only real problem with oil production is that government keeps getting in the way. Ask yourself: when was the last time a new refinery was licenced in the States? IIRC the answer is
"Drill Baby Drill" is indeed the solution to our energy problems, along with "Get Government Out Of The Way"
Figures lie...liars figure.
Rail is great for freight and deregulated rails mean healthy competition and reduced shipping costs. Dagney Taggert approves.
For moving people unless it pays for itself it needs to go away.
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