Obama's High-Speed Rail Fantasy

[cammando]

Billions more wasted and the guy still don't get it.... http://blog.heritage.org/2011/05/12/obamas-high-speed-spending-on-slow-speed-rail/

[SportsGuy41017]

When gas gets up to $7 a gallon people will look back with praise, as well as cursing those who put a stop to it! As was mentioned in another thread, I think in football, about vision, investing in the future, setting the standard high. People don't want to attempt to do something around here until it's too late.

[mcpapa]

Conservative - adj., often not liking or trusting change, especially sudden change.

 

Adj., favoring the preservation of established customs, values, etc., and opposing innovation.

[FarBeyondDriven]

If high speed rail is an efficient alternative method of transportation, private industry will lead the way. An immobile population, for some reason, is very attractive to busy body libs.

[mcpapa]

So, are we libs busy or immobile?

[FarBeyondDriven]

So, are we libs busy or immobile?

Good one. I like a sense of humor. Actually, libs generally prefer to be above/exempt from thier own ideas, i.e. Algore.

[jericho]

I think it could work, but people have to buy into it, I would use it.

[jericho]

Oh yeah, this is the stuff I think Obama has good ideas about.

[Getslow]

If high speed rail is an efficient alternative method of transportation, private industry will lead the way. An immobile population, for some reason, is very attractive to busy body libs.

 

Why would private industry lead the way? It never has before...

 

Air travel? How many airports haven't been funded by state and local governments?

 

Roads? This nation's highways were built with tax dollars. The reason it's so easy to get around this country in a car or a truck is because the federal and state governments have thrown countless billions into road construction.

 

Private industry for railroads can't compete with air or road travel when the government is subsidizing the competition.

[westsider]

If we really want to reduce our dependence on oil, high-speed rail is a good concept to promote. I just don't see the public going for it.

[Run To State]

Conservative - adj., often not liking or trusting change, especially sudden change.

 

Adj., favoring the preservation of established customs, values, etc., and opposing innovation.

Liberal - noun; someone that believes in compassion with everyone else's money.

Noun; one so open-minded their brain falls out.

 

 

 

Just kidding with ya, mcpapa.

[Bluegrasscard]

Closer to home...

 

http://www.cartky.org/lexrail

 

Ralph Tharp, executive director of Kentucky Capital Development Corporation in Frankfort, is championing a new passenger rail service linking Louisville, Lexington, and nine other stops. Trains would run at commute hours, and combine the speed of driving with the superior comfort, safety and economy of rail.

 

Lexington H-L ran an article on the project. It was interesting. It would use existing lines. But it would be on same line with traditional trains and the schedules would have be coordinated. So, while intriguing, it has severe logistical challenges.

 

The problem I saw was that if there is no tightly coordinated transit system to go with the train at its stops between Louisville and Lexington and at the end points it would not work well. In Toronto they have a u-shaped railway backbone that then feeds bus lines and it is a very good 'hybrid' system. But to run rail from city-to-city without coordinated local transportation seems like a failure waiting to happen.

 

Government can be a catalyst for projects that are too risky or do not have enough ROI for private investors - if it makes good sense and is a true investment. There is a difference between investment and spending and at times I am not sure government officials know the difference.

[Getslow]

^ Here's the biggest current problem with a high-speed corridor in Kentucky: what do you do when you actually get to where you're going? I can say definitively that unless that station is in the middle of downtown Louisville, good luck getting on a bus to actually get to any other place in the city. I would assume the same goes for Lexington and I can't even imagine what getting off a train in Frankfort is going to be like.

 

Also, the train should run on its own track, travel at very high speeds and the central line should stop only at Louisville, Frankfort and Lexington. As it stands, the Kentucky "high-speed" project is not a good one... par for the course here in Kentucky when it comes to transit issues (see: bridges project in Louisville).

[Zoot Soup]

We need rail in the worst way.

[75center]

We need rail in the worst way.

 

And that's exactly how we'll get it.