A perceptive person, commenting on my opposition to government financed hi-speed rails in Ohio and other states told me that ideologies can lead one astray. True enough. But they can also serve as a guide. I thought thusly: no matter how close to truth an ideology, slavish fidelity to it can in the end produce destructive enterprises. Ideologies are only a guide and each individual case should be looked at in light of the facts of its particular situation and applicability.
That was my mumbo-jumbo way of saying that while its a generally good rule of thumb to say that government programs are wasteful and mostly counterproductive, we should still look at individual cases..... such as..... proposals for slow or high speed rail programs.
I have many objections to the specific slow-speed program that was planned for Ohio, but below is an excellent article that addresses the general problems even with high speed rail .
While I might concede to you that certain intra-city rail transportation, might have some positive (as well as negative) transformative effects for a city, this article notes that this is generally not the case. Rather, most people utilizing rail travel will only be substituting rail for other modes of transportation. This is not transformative... just costly. The article also points out that train travel is by far the most expensive mode of travel, costing some 5 times per passenger mile than the automobile. Also, existing high speed trains in Europe and Japan, despite the hype. are grossly underutilized, except of course by tourists, who very much impressed, advocate these financial sink holes for America.
Transformative modes of transportation have always been lead by private industry. High speed rail promotion is being lead by government. That alone is enough reason to pause.
Of course, it would be a wonderful opportunity for politicians to attend grand opening ribbon cuttings, but wouldn't be money be better spent more boring things like maintaining and upgrading existing road systems? Apparently not. As mentioned, when Kasich inquired of the Obama administration as to whether Ohio might keep the $400 million offered by the Feds and use it for more appropriate transportation projects, he was rebuffed. Instead the money will go to lackey states willing to follow orders from the boss. These will no doubt be blue states already drowning in red ink like NY, CA, and IL.
Best Wishes,
Bernie
click for article below>>>>>>>>
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