Dawie Coetzee wrote:
> This from another group:
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carfree_cities/message/10256
> 
>> Fuel-sipping trains
>> June 11, 2007
>>
>>
>> With energy prices high and likely to go higher in the years ahead,
>> it would make sense for the nation to embrace a transportation
>> policy that puts a premium on energy efficiency. Transportation,
>> along with electrical power generation, is the country's biggest
>> consumer of fossil and renewable fuels. So what is the most fuel-
>> efficient form of transportation available in the U.S. today?
>> Believe it or not, it's Amtrak.

This is kinda a no brainer.

How long ago was it that Bush1 made up the
transportation policy for 'the next 20 years'
for the US?

All I remember, is that I recently out of the service
having spent the previous 18 months in (then) western
Europe, and was already a big fan of bicycling.

I was really hoping to hear about major investment
in light rail, revamping heavy (freight) rail lines
and of course the idea that is so good it's almost
stupid, radical investment in bike-friendly transportation
infrastructure.

Having seen this all over Europe, I was convinced
that my home country, the USA would embrace this
approach, it just makes so much sense.
What a naive fool. Even then, in my 30s, I had
yet to grasp how idiotic my culture can be.

Bush1 gave it all away, gave a great speech
about revamping our then crumbling interstate
highway infrastructure, to the joyful salutations
of the automobile, trucking, and local porkbarrel
contractors and industries. How insane! I thought,
can't anyone see how much economic growth could
be garnered by targeting these alternative approaches?

Uhh, probably, probably all too well. As I listened
to CSPAN and all the elected folks railing about
the 'taxpayer burden' of continued subsidy of AMTRAK.
As if all the hundreds of billions spent on backing
the airlines and interstate systems, as well as the automotive
industries was nothing. Even at that point I was
pretty ignorant of the staggeringly huge subsidies
expended on the fuel industry in the USA.

How this is actually seen.

NPR recently did the inquiry I was hoping someone would
do. It was so close to what I was hoping for I was
a bit taken aback when I heard about it.
Basically, the transportation cost of taking
a family of 4 one-way from the Washington DC region to
Boston Mass, via AMTRAK vs. driving.

Make no mistake, not matter how hard you hit
up the cost of operating a SUV, there isn't any
comparison. Barreling (heh) up I95 in an SUV
full of people, FROM THE CONSUMER POINT OF VIEW
is MUCH less expensive than taking the same
group of people on AMTRAK.

Until this changes, meaning, in my mind, that
until AMTRAK and other passenger rail systems start
receiving the same kind of consideration that
the car culture receives this will remain
so.

I could go on and on about this. Perhaps its the
romance of rail travel (I quickly admit how much
I enjoy travelling by rail, having been fortunate
enough to have done so numerous times since I was
a child) perhaps all these other things, but as
has been hammered on by this list so many times
in the past, Until the USA just simply gets over
this childish/infantile NEED for immediate gratification
this will be the continued suicidal direction. \

Maybe in the 80s, when telecommuting was just starting
to begin to make sense, but certainly now, where for
so much of the commuting traffic here in the USA, it's
a genuine alternative, held up only by corporate culture,
esp in the east (where the laws are made) and so on,
blah blah blah.

I do love trains, even in view of their shameful
past. The infrastructure is there. Not making
full use of it, esp in view of what is currently known
is criminal.

Like Keith stated so succinctly in a prior post,
the USA isn't addicted to oil, it is addicted to
waste.





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