Lisa Benson for October 26, 2013

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    ConserveGov  over 10 years ago

    A lot like Obamacare and free houses for everybody!Sounds great until people realize that it will never work and will just make everybody poorer.

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    mdhutton1949  over 10 years ago

    @ConserveGov:Perhaps you should read your history. The government involvement in transport infrastructure has worked every time: ports, canals, railways, roads, and airports. This involvement ranges from facilitation (granting of rights of way and land-giveaways) to construction (interstates). In all cases, jobs were created (both construction and usage) and commerce increased.

    High speed rail (as shown by Europe, Japan and China) is a very efficient way to move people between major metropolises 100km to 750km apart.

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    Francis Lapeyre Premium Member over 10 years ago

    It’s a WOMBAT project – waste of money, brains, and time.

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    chazandru  over 10 years ago

    I quit responding to Deerflatener months ago as he is another one more interested in fueling the fires of conflict than extinguishing them.One of Amtrak’s biggest problems is the railroad tendency to give cargo more priority than people. The number of lines reduced from four, three, and two to just one single line creates bottlenecks and delays and makes stops at smaller towns impractical. The example I was writing was too long… here’s the short of it…Politicians, lobbyists, and financially interested people should take a back seat to experts in social science and transportation so that roads, railroads, bike lanes, walkers, and even routes for people using horses and horse carts can be provided without the wasteful, polluting, and financially impractical short term solutions our lobbyist driven legislators are providing.We need high speed rail, light rail, cargo rail, and every type of road and highway our modes of travel can use. People need to be able to move from one place to another in safety and efficiency.Respectfully,C.

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    Hawthorne  over 10 years ago

    I’m told by a long term resident of Munich (the one in Germany, the foreign one, yes) that their public transport system actually makes a small profit.

    Instead of screaming ‘SOCIALIST’ every time someone offers up a plan to put people to work, get people to work, generally include working people in the culture – maybe we should send a team to Germany to check out their plan.

    Unless the GOP plan (which would probably be the one you’d be supporting) is simply to give public transportation the same treatment they are giving health care. No one but the obscenely rich need apply, but just in case someone might be able to make some use of it, they’ll cripple it by making schedules as useless as possible, and unreliable to boot, and keep pushing the rates up.

    Just how much destruction are we willing to countenance in the interest of banishing a boogie-man?

    That’s what the GOP socialism is – a boogie-man. So just check carefully under your bed, make sure the teddy bear is on the alert, and sleep safely. The socialism monster really can’t get you.

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    Quipss  over 10 years ago

    have you ever heard of the railway bubble, this minor event was the longest depression in recorded history, private sector failed

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    Uncle Joe Premium Member over 10 years ago

    Deerlord, flattener! You obviously have never looked at a map. The high speed rail lines in Europe & Asia connect cities that are hundreds of miles apart. In the US, high speed rail would not be competing with air travel. It would compete with automobiles. Lines linking the major cities of the west coast would be no longer than the lines in Japan. Japan has 1500 miles of high speed rail! Complaining about government rail is stupid when you think about who built the Interstate Highway system. If you want to argue about the superiority of investing money in more highways, go ahead. Calling anyone who floats an idea you don’t like ‘loser socialists’ just makes you look like an immature loudmouth. You can read some of the other comments & try to come back with a reasoned, rational response, but I’m not holding my breath.

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