High speed rail coming?

[Trooper110]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama plans high-speed rail in US

[Hammy]

Wait a minute.

I thought this guy ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism, where we were going to save our pennies while creating jobs for realistic infrastructure needs?

Now it will be acceptable to spend billions on a train system that only a small percentage of people will be able to afford, much less use conveniently?

Why arent the environmental terrorists asking this BOZO about carbon footprints and the like?

[Minerva]

I LOVE our high-speed trains

[Duke{CLR}]

Wait a minute.


Why arent the environmental terrorists asking this BOZO about carbon footprints and the like?

This is one of the selling points. People can go on these rails instead of flying or driving thus less fuel is burned.

[Rand{CLR}]

Right (Duke and Minerva).

You won't see me oppose any mass transit option, not coming from an urban designer and community planner.

One thing that concerns me, that doesn't get NEARLY enough attention, is how far behind the rest of the world the US is falling in technology, education, literacy, and other key factors. We're a good decade behind Japan when it comes to HD tech. We're almost two decades behind Japan, France, and Germany with regard to high speed rail, and a decade behind the rest of Europe, China, and Korea. We're in the teens (if we're lucky) in literacy percentage for adults. We're falling behind in too many other areas to list--certainly outside our battlegrounds section.

Spend the money and improve the state of the country. While we're at it, let's actually put some money into the infrastructure. The failure with the Obama bailout plan is that it's dedicated to "shovel ready" projects.

In my county, we have a number of projects that had full funding this time last year, and 100% design completion. NONE of them are funded now, because the criteria for "shovel ready" doesn't include them.

Anyway, remember the outcry for infrastructure after the Minneapolis bridge collapse? Where's that outcry today? The country is literally falling apart, so I'm fine with coughing up some tax money to fix it.

-Rand

[Hammy]

My problem is that the average ticket will probably be more than a ticket to fly....