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.

note also that the introduction of cheap cars to countries without a 'car
fixation' or a car infrastructure is causing those countries to change their
ideas also.

to wit: india and china, which are growing their car population by leaps and
bounds.



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...