In article , "DGDevin" wrote:


"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...


.. and in even greater part because a booming economy made cars both
plentiful and affordable, and people decided they preferred the freedom
and
convenience of private transport to public transport.

Sure, and because General Motors and other companies made a point of putting
streetcars out of business, even if they had to buy the companies running
them (using front companies) and replace streetcars with buses. At one time
America had over 1,200 electric light rail operations. GM alone converted
900 of these to buses. Of course the American fascination with the
automobile was part of the process, but it got a big push from companies
that wanted to sell cars and buses.

And looking at how air travel is going these days, the idea of high speed
rail is starting to look pretty good.

Except for the hundreds of gigabucks -- that we don't have -- required to
build the infrastructure.

We can afford to build damn near anything the Pentagon says it needs, but we
can't afford to refurb the national rail system? We can give tax breaks to
the oil companies, but we can't afford high speed rail? We're still sending
foreign aid to *China* of all places, but we can't upgrade our own transport
systems? Something doesn't add up here.

We can't really afford *any* of those things...