I remember one moment during the debates, where McCain referenced Obama’s plans for High-speed rail, dismissing it as pork barrel spending and moving on to call everything else the same.
Is it really Pork barrel spending? Possibly. There are so many hands dipping into every spending stream, especially military ones, that there is no doubt somebody that will skim a lot of this money into their own accounts, but that’s one of the reasons I voted the way I did. I’m hoping that OB really is trying to change that. Meanwhile, China is leaving us in the Stone age, spending $4 for every 1 that the US will spend, in the disputed budget proposal.
China has in its drive to become a world leader has committed to investing over $300 billion in high-speed rail through to 2020 in contrast to the much argued invest in the US of only $8 billion. – http://www.inquisitr.com/32532/chinas-high-speed-rail-to-leave-the-rest-of-the-world-behind/
Do we need Hi-speed rail? Yes. We need Low speed rail ffs. Locally, we are struggling to get train stations back to towns outside of general metro areas. There has been a train station in the DeKalb downtown area sitting vacant since before I was born. The sets of tracks that run along side it, straight trhough town, are constantly used for commercial freight, but it’s still unfeasible to set up commuter lines again? 60 miles outside of Chicago, you still have to drive 20 miles to get on a train that will go to Chicago’s Loop. From a town of 35,000. They are bringing out another train stop, hopefully, but in reality for people in my town, this changes nothing, even if I think it’s a good step. http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2009/08/07/68259033/index.xml
The service is something worth having, no matter the trouble or cost. In the article about China’s hi-speed rail, they cite the heavy use of the system already as validation for it’s construction and upgrade, this is something that the US cannot cite because our own civilian train system stopped improving in the 50’s.
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