Obama wants to build a nationwide light rail system

If it employes people and brings revenues, why not? Think of the logistics and trade in bulk/container goods, the more efficient and faster it will be..We're building a similar rail between the port of Rotterdam and the Ruhr area, have any idea how much traffic jams costs to our economy? And besides a little less poluting of our planet wouln't be too much of a bad idea would it?

You already have a pretty neat railroad network [specially in the east] why not use it more for freight?

www.mapsofworld.com...

reply to post by Foppezao


That is just it. We do already use our rail network to move freight. We just put the shipping containers or semi trailers right on the train. It works great. That why we dont need to spend a bizzilion dollars that we dont have building a highspeed rail system.

[edit on 17-4-2009 by justsomeboreddude]

reply to post by justsomeboreddude



oh sorry this was for people transportation only, only light rail?........................

reply to post by Vyrtigo


I think your teen mentality is getting the best of you and your sophomoric posts. Your parents must not be home from work yet. You have contributed nothing to the topic. Do you even know what light rail is?

Try to stay on topic if you can...

reply to post by Foppezao


Who knows. They just say highspeed rail. Could be just for people or for both. But we have Amtrak here for people and nobody uses it. It looses tons of money every year. They are subsidized by the Federal Government or they would be out of business.

My theory is that our President and Congress wont be happy until our currency is worthless. We wont be able to eat or function but we can ride the shiny, new train

[edit on 17-4-2009 by justsomeboreddude]

Roads are major blocks, because anytime you have to run anything underground, or make any changes to underground systems, you have to deal with the roads. With an elevated rail system, that would no longer be a problem. In addition, with an elevated rail system pedestrians would be able to get around far, far better. Roads make it far more difficult to get around on foot or on a bicycle.

Yes, I did answer your question about cost, less than our current road system. Look up what our road systems cost, and cut it by 20%.

It is ridiculous to think our antiquated rail system is adequate. It would be like trying to fight wars with WW II era planes. Our transportation system is extremely vital to our economic security. A new innovative transportation infrastructure would do more to secure our nations future than any weapons system we could ever build, because it will ensure our economic future.

Other things to consider, other huge advantages of such a system. With the development of frequency drives, AC motors would be used, so no brushes to change. An AC motor is very simple, and extremely reliable, with a life time several times that of a combustion engine. All there is to an AC motor is a shaft, a set of bearings, a rigid housing, a rotor which is an electrical coil mounted on the shaft, and the stator, which is electrical coils mounted in the housing. The only moving parts are the set of bearings. An electric motor gets five times the life of a combustion engine, and it doesn't need all the extra support components, like a coolant pump. A tiny squirt of grease every three months, and you are set, no oil to change, no transmission fluid, no clutch.

Mom and Dad can have their own vehicles to get around, and then when the family decides to go on vacation, they could connect the two vehicles together so they have twice the space for storage, and a third car to pack their suitcases and other gear inside.

reply to post by poet1b


Since you know how much our highway system costs to maintain why dont you just tell me and save me the trouble of looking it up.

reply to post by justsomeboreddude


Oh, but then I would be denying you of the learning process. That is research you must do for yourself. The journey is more important than the destination. I couldn't deprive you of such a great thing.

reply to post by justsomeboreddude




Do they happen to swing by any FEMA camps.

They also have something called an Amtrak, my dad happens to be an engineer .

I could see the use of a North South Freeway to help with congestion. Is there any word on that.

I'm not referring to the NAFTA highway from Mexico to Canada.

reply to post by virraszto


What is interesting is that Detroit has light rail infrastructure underneath the current city streets. Woodward Ave. Michigan Ave. And even down Congress. The old trolley car lines were just buried in the ground.

It would be more functional than that waste of money people mover.

Great, another pointless, pie-in-the-sky project. I guess obama figures he better produce SOMETHING for all the tax money he's swindling. If there were a market for this type of thing, a private company would've built it long ago. The fact that it doesn't exist already is proof that it isn't needed.


TheAssociate

Originally posted by cautiouslypessimistic

Originally posted by asmall89
reply to post by cautiouslypessimistic

 

We already have a REALLY good shipping railway industry! One of the best in the world. This particular project isn't for shipping, a light rail is for transporting people.

The reason we use semis is because trains don't have the ability to maneuver and go in certain places trucks can (mostly because they're limited to the track). Our railway system spans across the country and interconnects throughout many cities in both the east and west. Thats how we progressed so fast through the industrial revolution because we had a huge railway system built, and we still have one of the best. I'm surprised you didn't know that, railroads are a huge part of American history and industry.

Having a light rail is a good idea though, but private industries should use it and if the Government does it it should only be cross country. I would like to see a bullet train like rail system spanning the continental US some day, that would make it so much easier and cheaper on some of us who live out in the the rural west. But you gotta have money to build one, and well the government is kind of broke right now.

I disagree, and so do the numbers. Our shipping industry is failing, from semi trucks to rails. Our origional railsystem was the envy of the world for a while, but it is HIGHLY outdated, innefficient, and truly bad for the ecosystem.

Most of what I have read in my research says that the idea with the high speed rail system is to move into a bullet train type future. The two are VERY closely related. However, normal rails, aside from the fact that they are on rails, have nothing else in common with the other two.

Where do you get we are raising taxes? This is more spin you are hearing from MSM.

We are letting the Bush tax code expire - and returning to what it was.

I highly doubt you make over the $250,000 mark (and if you do, you can complain, but if you do, you would be smart enough to keep shut about it because we have one of the best tax rates going right now)

Obama/government/whatever is not your problem

This rail system if implemented correctly would be great for this country. Except for those homeland security transportation scans b4 you enter lol

Originally posted by GreenBicMan

Where do you get we are raising taxes? This is more spin you are hearing from MSM.

We are letting the Bush tax code expire - and returning to what it was.

This is how I assume he gets that they would have to raise taxes. One they are already spending more than they make, so if they add more expenses it either has to come from more taxes or more borrowing. If you borrow you have to pay it back eventually, which will lead to more taxes... because we will have to pay it back with interest.

reply to post by TheAssociate


...and what's the alternative just to leave things the way they are???

If operating oil fields increasingly at a loss (not one oil field in the north sea has made a profit in the past quarter) and sustaining the status quo of shovelling the planet into our cars is your reposte, I suggest an education for you. Everywhere, but everywhere needs an alternativ to mass transit since fossil fuels (and ultimately aviation in its current form) has a finite shelf life. It's nice to see a world leader with the balls to suggest something like this.

Low carbon (admittedly only as low as the electricity the rail network uses by eternally lower than burning fossil fuels) modes of transport are needed to save us from shaking the petrol pumps like angry cavemen, wondering why we ran out and why nobody saw it coming.

N.B. TV was a pie in the sky project long ago. As were mass vaccinations, life expectancy beyond 50....oh and commercialisation of wide area networks!

Open your mind, please - and think on!

If building a new modern transportation structure pays off as well as building the Interstate highway system in the fifties, then the economic growth from the advantage of such a new, more efficient, faster public transportation system would most likely lead to increased GDP, which would mean not only could we pay for this system without increasing taxes, but we could also pay off the huge debts created by the last three completely incompetent Repub admins.

Just think if you didn't have to drive all the things you could stock your vehicle with. There are whole new industries to be created just for that alone.

Just think about all the money you would save not having to buy a new car every five years, all the money that is going to interest rates and insurance that are nothing but huge scams that come with our current horribly inefficient system.

Corporations are not going to support an efficient system that will save the average person any money. An efficient U.S. transportation system would really muck up the CWO's plans to enslave our entire population.



[edit on 17-4-2009 by poet1b]

reply to post by justsomeboreddude


I cannot guess. I have been out of the field for several decades now. You can bet that it would be enormous and would probably cost more than the Alaska Pipeline did and I am sure the challenges would be similar.

What will the cost be if we don't modernize our transportation infrastructure?

How about our future as a nation. Right now we need a national project similar to WW II to get us out of this economic meltdown created by de-regulation and incompetent repub admins who put our nation into debt in the first place.

What we really need is something a great deal bolder. It seems me that oil companies and automobile companies have kept us trapped in the sixties for forty years now.

When are we going to start moving forward again?

reply to post by justsomeboreddude


The new taxes will come from ammunition, cigarettes and Guns.

Well as long as we are still allowed to buy or use them.

Printing more money will only lead to hyperinflation in 2010-2011.

Obama will create new jobs and the cost of some new light railway system would be in the billions.

It reminds me of the Alaska pipline construction Project.

Originally posted by wonderworld
reply to post by justsomeboreddude

 

The new taxes will come from ammunition, cigarettes and Guns.

Well as long as we are still allowed to buy or use them.

Printing more money will only lead to hyperinflation in 2010-2011.

Obama will create new jobs and the cost of some new light railway system would be in the billions.

It reminds me of the Alaska pipline construction Project.

Well the taxes will come from somewhere that is for sure. I agree about hyper inflation occuring sometime in the future.

I bet the costs would be in the 100's of billions if not trillions. Somebody on here said that in SC they built light rail and 10 miles of it cost them $525 million. So even if they cut that cost/mile in half, the cost would be unimaginable.

[edit on 17-4-2009 by justsomeboreddude]

reply to post by justsomeboreddude


Well we dont need to worry about trillions any more. It's an everyday word now.

Those numbers are a bit alarming!

I think people tend to forget we are in a global Bankruptcy or near to it.

It will only take one word from Obama to cause public panic, bank runs and blood on the streets. They are not telling all yet.

I hope they dont plan to use our children as Obama's Civilian National Security force to build this rail system FREE of charge.

[edit on 17-4-2009 by wonderworld]

[edit on 17-4-2009 by wonderworld]