View Single Post
  #29   Report Post  
Posted to rec.woodworking
Robatoy[_2_] Robatoy[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,062
Default Welcome To Big Time Politics

On Feb 18, 9:19*am, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:
DGDevin wrote:

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.


And all of these got you exactly where they went - not necessarily where you
were going. *They were problematic in their own rite. *Cities were a tangle
of overhead wires, the street cars could not alter course for any reason,
they were not easy to swap out if one required maintenance.

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.


"The American facination with the automobile" is a really tired cliche.
Sure, it's true to a point, but the automobile has stirred facination all
around the world. *Nothing so uniquely American about it. *The fact that it
took hold so well in America, and has resisted such alternatives as rail
over the years has been discussed to death as well. *Rail just did not work
to mobilize the American society. *That's not even unique to America.



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.


I do agree with those statements. *There is a lot of spending done by
Washington that is just plain upside down. *So - you're supporting the idea
of Washington spending more money on a national rail system? *Scarey
thought...

--

-Mike-


If a railway system focuses on freight alone and get those damned
trucks off the major arteries, we'd be ahead by quite a bit.
An intelligent hub & spoke system.
The math is simple. Fuel to move a given quantity of freight X
miles...train vs truck.
Nothing to talk about.
Fast too.

ANY kind of government will turn this into a political pork-barrel
football.
Private industry vs a much BIGGER private industry (oil) is what we're
up against.