Posts tagged trains

Quote 86
Notes
Posted 1 year ago
There are lots of useful things we can do to rearrange daily life in the USA that would put people to work, but they would tend to defy the status quo. We could recognize that peak oil means that we have to grow our food differently and make local agriculture a more up-front piece of the economy. We could rebuild the railroads so that people don’t have to drive everywhere. We could rebuild our inland ports to move more bulk freight on boats. Notice these are very straightforward activities, unlike the manipulation of financial paper and markets. We’re not interested in focusing on agriculture and transport reform. Business and political interests are arrayed against changing anything. Something’s got to give.
James Howard Kunstler (via azspot)
via scudmissile
Quote 10
Notes
Posted 1 year ago
If we cannot see the case for expending our collective resources on trains, it will not just be because we have all joined gated communities and no longer need anything but private car to move around between them. It will be because we have become gated individuals who do not know how to share public space to common advantage.
Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land, p. 216
Link 12
Notes
Posted 1 year ago

Hudson River tunnel project is officially canceled by Gov. Christie

Gov. Chris Christie today killed the controversial, multi-billion dollar Hudson River commuter train tunnel — America’s largest public works project — ending for now the two-decade-old quest to expand train capacity between New Jersey and midtown Manhattan.

By not adequately funding infrastructure, America is cutting itself off at the knees. Meaningful economic activity simply cannot take place without it.

Link 18
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Posted 2 years ago

How America Led, and Lost, the High-Speed Rail Race

How did America get to where it is today, a country with the slowest and most threadbare intercity passenger rail service of any advanced nation?

Not so very long ago, we were not in this humiliating position. In fact, we operated trains that amazed and impressed the rest of the world. These trains were called streamliners, and their very names – Silver Meteor, Flying Yankee, Rocky Mountain Rocket,Denver Zephyr – connoted speed and luxury. In the period between 1935 and 1950, the 10 fastest scheduled passenger trains in the world were all U.S. streamliners.