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. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
