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OPINION

High-speed rail could spur American jobs

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
(Updated 4:05 am)

I certainly agree with your lead editorial in the Feb. 3 paper (“Faster train service will draw passengers”). However, I must take issue with the Jan. 20 Associated Press article (“Building ultra-fast trains won’t create the kind of high-tech, high-paying jobs Americans covet”).
That article says we would have to import high-speed rail (HSR) technology from overseas. But that technology resides right next door in Canada with Bombardier, a leading company that provides HSR equipment, particularly cars and locomotives, all over the world. It builds cars in the U.S., where it has 8,000 employees.
While our domestic passenger railcar industry (Pullman, Budd, St. Louis Car, etc.) faded as we became so dependent on automobiles and highways, we could revive this industry with a Manhattan Project-like effort and put Americans to work under the stimulus plan.
We can certainly build track for HSR as well as anyone in the world. Tests and subsequent experience show that track for the Northeast Corridor can handle 150 mph speeds.
In addition to the advantages of rail travel cited in your editorial, this affords an excellent opportunity to provide many good, new jobs in our manufacturing and construction industries.
Harry Clapp
Greensboro

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danagain

February 9, 2010 - 7:30 am EST

A wonderful idea but 1) Where will the money come from? The govt. is broke; 2) Will people use it aside from densely populated areas in the Northeast? Americans love their cars. 3) Will it pay for itself or need billions in subsidies as the current Amtrak does?

neocon

February 9, 2010 - 7:42 am EST

Jeeze Dan, can't you see the intent is pure? Why spoil the moment with logical questions?

rightwingnemesis

February 9, 2010 - 8:46 am EST

Mr. danagain,
I feel bad for laughing here, but your post is like the Sarah Palin speech to the Teabaggers--a bunch of questions but no answers. All you need to do is throw the phrase "common sense" in there about twenty times and you'd have her down pat. (Oh, and of course "freedom" and "The great Ronald Reagan")
If you haven't seen that speech it is worth a look see. My gosh she is the queen bee of "surface thinkers".
This is pretty much sums it up:
Palin has mastered the non-answer. Listening to Sarah Palin ,without a prepared speech and a teleprompter ,is like listening to the "Sounds Of Nature" sleep aide on a Hilton alarm clock.

According to a top comedic writer, Chris Kelly, Palin used some combination of "solutions," "conservative" and "commonsense" twenty-five times during a fifteen minute interview with Rush Limbaugh. One rule in debating, essay tests and and armed robberies is that you can't use the general theme of question as the answer.

Robber : "Where's the money!"

7-11 Clerk :"Where's the money?"

Bang!

I redacted the give-a-ways. Can you match the question with the answer?

Questions

1. Why she wrote her book
2. The need for health care reform
3. Outlook for GOP in 2010 elections
4. Appealing to Independent voters
5. Future of the Republican Party
6. Fixing Unemployment.
7. Meaning of special congressional election in New York State.

So Mr. danagain, you had no idea you would walk into this one, but when the shoe fits..
As to high speed rail, it might actually stand a chance in this country now that automobiles are not the craven gods they used to be. The need is definitely there in the northeast corridor from Richmond to NYC, and even if Amtrak is the bogeyman for naysayers, hi tech passenger rail is a good idea. Of course for the surface dwellers, I imagine they will just wait for the Jetson's type world.

Sawdust

February 9, 2010 - 9:38 am EST

There is little doubt that Obama is the deepest thinker on the scene today. According to Axelrod, B-plus helped write a paper on the legal implications of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It takes a pretty big brain to tackle a project like that.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 1:58 pm EST

"Tribe, Laurence H. "The Curvature of Constitutional Space: What Lawyers Can Learn From Modern Physics," 103 Harvard L.aw Review 1 (1989)"

I believe that is what they are talking about.
Perhaps you would like to referene some of your publications.

Mensa really

What Test
What Score
Who Monitored.

From Internet?

Your Brag

Sawdust

February 9, 2010 - 3:23 pm EST

No more calls, please. We have a winner.

I'll make a deal, dcolin. Several weeks or months back you asked me a question, and I answered it as honestly as I know how. Now you're acting like a little kid in a car, "Are we there yet, Daddy?" When will we get there?" "How much longer till we stop?' What test?" "Who scored it?" Here's the deal: I will answer your questions in full the day after Obama releases his transcripts. All of them. Until that day, you might as well drop the subject. Or you can keep it up, whatever floats your boat, or makes your leg tingle. If it makes you feel good to ask the same questions every day, far be it from me to stop you. I'm sure everyone enjoys reading the same od crap from you and xeno day after day. Have fun, boys.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 4:19 pm EST

. "Several weeks or months back you asked me a question, and I answered it as honestly as I know how."
What the hell does Obamas transcripts have to do with your Bragging?

Your Brag.
Not mine

How much math?

Sawdust

February 9, 2010 - 7:58 pm EST

I wasn't bragging, I was answering your question in an honest and forthright manner. You don't seem to believe me, so why should I answer any more of your questions? If you didn't believe me then, why should I expect you to believe anything else I say? But knock yourself out asking over and over.

You seem to believe that B-plus is really A-plus, and I haven't seen proof, all I've seen is all the bragging of you Obamaroids about how brilliant he is. When I see proof of his brilliance, I'll answer your questions. The subject is closed to me until then.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 8:56 pm EST

"I'll make a deal, dcolin."

What deal.
You said you were tested and in the top 2%.

I simply asked.
What Test, What Score, Who monitored. Was it down loaded from the internet?
I believe you. Answer those questions and I promise to stop.
Even if you say I did it all myself. I don't care.
I won't bring it up again.

You don't trust me.

"I've seen is all the bragging of you Obamaroids about how brilliant he is."

No bragging from me.
What have I said about him that wasn't a fact.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 11:06 pm EST

I simply asked.
What Test, What Score, Who monitored. Was it down loaded from the internet?
I believe you. Answer those questions and I promise to stop.
Even if you say I did it all myself. I don't care.
I won't bring it up again.

You don't trust me.

Easy enough Sawdust.

What ever you tell us we will believe.
At least I will.
You are a man of honor.
Tell us and I will let it go.

Sounds like a offer you shouldn't refuse

Yvonne

February 9, 2010 - 4:39 pm EST

You repeat yourself daily also, Sawdust. So where do you come off complaining about someone else doing the same thing?

xeno10

February 9, 2010 - 5:25 pm EST

sawdust, how dare you mention my name!!! You're not very bright, are you? Seriously!

danagain

February 9, 2010 - 5:22 pm EST

Blah, blah, blah, Palin, blah, blah, blah Palin, blah, blah, blah and then finally an answer:

"As to high speed rail, it might actually stand a chance in this country now that automobiles are not the craven gods they used to be."

"Might actually"????

Since autos are not "craven gods" let me guess, you ride the bus correct?

terrier2003

February 9, 2010 - 6:21 pm EST

bla bla bla

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 10:32 am EST

dan

Seriously

Other than Supply, Demand, Free Markets, what do you know of economics?

Do educate us.
I could use the help.

hugh

February 9, 2010 - 11:55 am EST

Dude, you are as obsessed with Dan as that Dr. up in Rockingham county is obsessed with his neighbor across the street. I suggest you start drinking heavily.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 1:18 pm EST

Dude?

Real people don't talk that way.

hugh

February 9, 2010 - 1:45 pm EST

It's a generational thing, you wouldn't understand.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 1:53 pm EST

Thank God

hugh

February 9, 2010 - 3:46 pm EST

Amen.

danagain

February 9, 2010 - 5:26 pm EST

I havent' figured out that obsession either hugh. No one can answer my questions either.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 5:59 pm EST

It's simple.
Surely you cannot be that stupid.

I don't like you.

It should be fairly obvious.

danagain

February 9, 2010 - 6:17 pm EST

I avoid people I don't like. Maybe you should try avoiding me eh?

I like you David Colin, you are a funny old man. All the best to Mrs. Colin.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 7:41 pm EST

No

See you are a phony.
Just say you don't like me.
You don't have to like me.

"All the best to Mrs. Colin."

More of your mindless crap.

danagain

February 9, 2010 - 9:33 pm EST

You are a sweetie pie David Colin. To quote Barney Fife, "you're the cats".

Sawdust

February 9, 2010 - 7:58 am EST

Of course we can do it as well as anyone in the world. That is not the question. Not can we, but should we? Should we spend x amount of money on projects a, b, or c?

The first question I would ask is: Can we afford it? Right now? It seems to me that the people in government, regardless of party affiliation, are notoriously poor managers of our money. If I had that problem with one of my children, my tendency would certainly not be to give them any more money to spend. I would give them less, make them prove to me that they can manage a little before I give them more. If we're going to have HSR, we're going to be giving more money to them, because the taxpayers will ultimately pay for it.

Is it worth it? Do we trust them to do it as well and as inexpensively as possible? Or do we invision millions of dollars spent on kickbacks and payback for political favors? I tend to favor the latter, and as the politicians involved go up the scale from local to state to federal, I tend to favor it even more. You may believe the former, or believe the latter and judge it to be a worthy project anyway.

Well, it works in Europe and Japan. Yes, but those folks pay at least twice as much as we do for gasoline. I wonder: if their gas was as relatively as cheap as ours, would HSR be as attractive? The opposite is true: that if gas cost twice as much here HSR would be more attractive.

But gas doesn't cost much here, globally speaking. Unless a fool like Algore can cause enough alarm in the public to somehow increase the cost of gas so that HSR can save the Polar bears. Somehow? We know how: taxes, taxes, taxes. I wonder why gas is so expensive in Europe? Could it possibly be taxes? That would be my first guess. All we have to do to get the public on the side of HSR is to double the price of gasoline. Why stop there? Let's triple it. That way, everyone can chip in for the cost of HSR, whether they use it or not.

xeno10

February 9, 2010 - 10:18 am EST

sawdust, you're not very bright, are you? Seriously.

rwrn

February 9, 2010 - 10:30 am EST

A no-bid contract to a big political donor should do the trick. Pick your party.

Sawdust

February 9, 2010 - 1:17 pm EST

Not nearly as bright as Obama; see my 9:38 comment above.

dcolin

February 9, 2010 - 10:30 am EST

Seriously

Other than Supply, Demand, Free Markets, what do you know of economics?

Do educate us.
I could use the help.

Oh,
"a fool like Algore "

He and Kerry were in Vietnam with you.
Don't you think a little respect is earned.

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