Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I like railroads
I like railroads.
I'm not convinced America needs a nationally linked high speed railroad system.
There's two regions that do need one: The Northeast Boston-Washington corridor, where a true HSR probably isn't possible, & San Diego-San Francisco. America isn't Europe or Japan. We're also not China or India, which don't yet have auto cultures much less anything like our interstate highway system. Those favoring HSR assume that if some regions of the nation need HSR, all the other states will scream for their share. But there isn't much demand for fast rail service from Omaha to Wichita, or Tampa to Orlando, & there never will. Since HSR would serve only select cities, unprofitable regular service provided by Amtrak or other lines has to feed passengers to those stations from other towns on the routes between those cities. This is what we have on a small scale in Jersey.
It would be wise to reclaim & extend our freight railroad routes. They take big trucks off the highways & can be adapted for local passenger routes. Jersey is paying a steep price now for abandoning freight trackage & rights-of-way, as we are unable to expand commuter rail service a few miles to towns that used to have it & would benefit from having it again.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I'm not convinced America needs a nationally linked high speed railroad system.
There's two regions that do need one: The Northeast Boston-Washington corridor, where a true HSR probably isn't possible, & San Diego-San Francisco. America isn't Europe or Japan. We're also not China or India, which don't yet have auto cultures much less anything like our interstate highway system. Those favoring HSR assume that if some regions of the nation need HSR, all the other states will scream for their share. But there isn't much demand for fast rail service from Omaha to Wichita, or Tampa to Orlando, & there never will. Since HSR would serve only select cities, unprofitable regular service provided by Amtrak or other lines has to feed passengers to those stations from other towns on the routes between those cities. This is what we have on a small scale in Jersey.
It would be wise to reclaim & extend our freight railroad routes. They take big trucks off the highways & can be adapted for local passenger routes. Jersey is paying a steep price now for abandoning freight trackage & rights-of-way, as we are unable to expand commuter rail service a few miles to towns that used to have it & would benefit from having it again.
