In an Unequal America, Getting to Work Can Be Hell...

[JimBowie1958]

I agree with the OP.

I have lived in the UK, and Germany and visited France, Austria and the Netherlands. You can go anywhere in Europe fairly cheaply via bus, train, then bus again and it is fast too. Got from London to Southampton in like 90 minutes over 71 miles on their high speed rail during rush hour no less.

We used to have similar public transportation () but nearly as fast) with trolley cars, trains then another trolley car, but the Auto industry corporations basically bribed all the municipal city council leaders to tear out the trolley tracks and make the urban roads safer for cars.

Huge mistake in my opinion.

Now we are literally tied to gasoline for all our travel needs,

 

[the other mike]

THAT isn't "America". THAT is "a very, very small portion of America that most Americans never go near." Sorry, Sparkles. Talk to me about something that matters to people across the country.

What isn't 'America' ? You lost me.
Trump said "you go to China and Japan then come back here - it's like a third world country" and he's right.

 

[Rustic]

They don’t know each other; they live 60 miles apart; and, at least on the surface, Carrie Blough and Karen Allen don’t have much in common. But ask them about their journeys to and from their jobs every day, and their stories converge in a shared narrative of commuter hell.

In an Unequal America, Getting to Work Can Be Hell

Some of us have been saying it for decades that we need to build new high-speed rail lines in the United States, especially in the Boston to DC corridor, but the argument has always been that it's too expensive for the government to invest in and would not be a profitable venture for private companies. But these same people never seem to have a problem signing blank checks for a Pentagon budget that's over a trillion dollars a year now when you combine the military and the entire national security/ intelligence system that's in place. Why is that ?
View attachment 242860

We don’t need trains running over people’s land...

 

[Rustic]

Like guns...Americans don't give up their cars.

 

[Mikeoxenormous]

I agree with the OP.

I have lived in the UK, and Germany and visited France, Austria and the Netherlands. You can go anywhere in Europe fairly cheaply via bus, train, then bus again and it is fast too. Got from London to Southampton in like 90 minutes over 71 miles on their high speed rail during rush hour no less.

We used to have similar public transportation () but nearly as fast) with trolley cars, trains then another trolley car, but the Auto industry corporations basically bribed all the municipal city council leaders to tear out the trolley tracks and make the urban roads safer for cars.

Huge mistake in my opinion.

Now we are literally tied to gasoline for all our travel needs,

Or we could be tied to union pukes who if they go on strike, your transportation is dead in the water. I love my car, how I can go where ever I want and not have to worry if some liberal puke has a bad day...

 

[Mikeoxenormous]

Like guns...Americans don't give up their cars.

SS - Shitty Sedan....By Chevy...

 

[Rustic]

I actually have a big problem "giving a blank check" to the Pentagon. I'm all for accountability in government spending.

That being said, these whinging bitches can have MY tax money to build THEIR high speed rail for THEIR commute just as soon as they can explain what possible benefit I, a resident of Arizona, get from a frigging train in "the Boston to DC corridor".

If you're in Arizona you should be more worried about where your water's gonna come from in 10 or 20 years when Lake Mead dries up.

Crazy Cali gonna run out of water much sooner

 

[Cecilie1200]

THAT isn't "America". THAT is "a very, very small portion of America that most Americans never go near." Sorry, Sparkles. Talk to me about something that matters to people across the country.

What isn't 'America' ? You lost me.
Trump said "you go to China and Japan then come back here - it's like a third world country" and he's right.

THAT isn't "America". THAT is "a very, very small portion of America that most Americans never go near." Sorry, Sparkles. Talk to me about something that matters to people across the country.

What isn't 'America' ? You lost me.
Trump said "you go to China and Japan then come back here - it's like a third world country" and he's right.

If you can't remember what the conversation is about for longer than 2 minutes at a time, say so now so you can be ignored.

We're talking about how federal tax dollars "need" to be spent on a high-speed train between Boston and DC because some crybabies have a tough commute.

Next time, refer back to the beginning of the thread, because I won't keep refreshing your memory for you.

 

[Cecilie1200]

They don’t know each other; they live 60 miles apart; and, at least on the surface, Carrie Blough and Karen Allen don’t have much in common. But ask them about their journeys to and from their jobs every day, and their stories converge in a shared narrative of commuter hell.

In an Unequal America, Getting to Work Can Be Hell

Some of us have been saying it for decades that we need to build new high-speed rail lines in the United States, especially in the Boston to DC corridor, but the argument has always been that it's too expensive for the government to invest in and would not be a profitable venture for private companies. But these same people never seem to have a problem signing blank checks for a Pentagon budget that's over a trillion dollars a year now when you combine the military and the entire national security/ intelligence system that's in place. Why is that ?
View attachment 242860

We don’t need trains running over people’s land...

There already is a train there. It's just not fancy enough to suit those whiners, so somehow, everyone else in America needs to buy them a better one.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Or we could be tied to union pukes who if they go on strike, your transportation is dead in the water. I love my car, how I can go where ever I want and not have to worry if some liberal puke has a bad day...

Dude, it isnt like you would see the roads all torn up and gas stations disappear.

It just would be nice to go from my house to Seatle without going by car and being able to sleep during travel on the train.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I actually have a big problem "giving a blank check" to the Pentagon. I'm all for accountability in government spending.

That being said, these whinging bitches can have MY tax money to build THEIR high speed rail for THEIR commute just as soon as they can explain what possible benefit I, a resident of Arizona, get from a frigging train in "the Boston to DC corridor".

If you're in Arizona you should be more worried about where your water's gonna come from in 10 or 20 years when Lake Mead dries up.

Crazy Cali gonna run out of water much sooner

All the more reason why I don't need to be sending my tax dollars to the Northeast to buy them shiny new trains, huh?

 

[the other mike]

I'm a little disappointed. We went to the moon when I was 8 years old.
I figured by 2020 we'd be like the Jetson's by now.

 

[Polishprince]

Like guns...Americans don't give up their cars.

America is spread out, unlike the Empire of Japan, Red China or the German Reich. People have their own cars, and don't live close to rail stations in most places. New York City is an exception. But if the federal government built high speed railroads between Hermitage and Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown and Erie, how many passengers could you expect? Not many, it would just be easier to drive where you choose when to leave and where to park, and you don't rely on train schedules and the placement of stations.

 

[the other mike]

I actually have a big problem "giving a blank check" to the Pentagon. I'm all for accountability in government spending.

That being said, these whinging bitches can have MY tax money to build THEIR high speed rail for THEIR commute just as soon as they can explain what possible benefit I, a resident of Arizona, get from a frigging train in "the Boston to DC corridor".

If you're in Arizona you should be more worried about where your water's gonna come from in 10 or 20 years when Lake Mead dries up.

Crazy Cali gonna run out of water much sooner

All the more reason why I don't need to be sending my tax dollars to the Northeast to buy them shiny new trains, huh?

When I said federal , I was referring to a coast to coast - type of project, which would involve financial arrangements within each state the rails run in and so on.

 

[the other mike]

Like guns...Americans don't give up their cars.

America is spread out, unlike the Empire of Japan, Red China or the German Reich. People have their own cars, and don't live close to rail stations in most places. New York City is an exception. But if the federal government built high speed railroads between Hermitage and Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown and Erie, how many passengers could you expect? Not many, it would just be easier to drive where you choose when to leave and where to park, and you don't rely on train schedules and the placement of stations.

A lot of that depends on the future price of petroleum and jet fuel.
Trains can run on solar, wind or whatever kind of electricity and eventually
win the price war when gas is $10 a gallon and a plane ticket costs a month's salary.

 

[Natural Citizen]

We need to modernize the homeland, then worry about having an empire to police the world.

You kow who popularized the term 'homeland"?

Hitler.

He stole it from the Zionist movement who were trying to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East in the 1930s.

He did that because he wanted to sell the idea to the German people that they were racially superior.

 

[the other mike]

All the more reason why I don't need to be sending my tax dollars to the Northeast to buy them shiny new trains, huh?

You guys need desalination plants on the Gulf of California coast, which is only about 150 miles from Phoenix.

 

[the other mike]

We need to modernize the homeland, then worry about having an empire to police the world.

You kow who popularized the term 'homeland"?

Hitler.

He stole it from the Zionist movement who were trying to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East in the 1930s.

Thanks. I'll try to remember that in case it's one of the questions next time I'm on Jeapardy.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Thanks. I'll try to remember that in case it's one of the questions next time I'm on Jeapardy.

The term disappeared from German use after WWII.

The German people became ashamed of the word because it represented so many terrible things.

To this day, they still don't use the term.

But the United States has taken to popularizing it. Even creating a federal police force called Department of Homeland Security.

I suspect that history will eventually repeat itself and the generations of tomorrow will look back and recall the tyranny it ushered and welcomed into this once great nation.

 

[Polishprince]

Like guns...Americans don't give up their cars.

America is spread out, unlike the Empire of Japan, Red China or the German Reich. People have their own cars, and don't live close to rail stations in most places. New York City is an exception. But if the federal government built high speed railroads between Hermitage and Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown and Erie, how many passengers could you expect? Not many, it would just be easier to drive where you choose when to leave and where to park, and you don't rely on train schedules and the placement of stations.

A lot of that depends on the future price of petroleum and jet fuel.
Trains can run on solar, wind or whatever kind of electricity and eventually
win the price war when gas is $10 a gallon and a plane ticket costs a month's salary.

Even then, the price of fuel would have to be pretty high to justify the expenditure on infrastructure for all the trains to all the different locations in this country. Not to mention the staff to drive the trains.

In addition , electric cars are now more and more commonplace.