“It’s not owned by a single billionaire”
Okay yeah, this just isn’t going to work here.
Exactly what the article was getting at. It is more important for the left to point fingers at the right than work with them to make it possible and so nothing can get done.
I’m sure there will be several “whatabout” pointing fingers at the right thus proving my point. And plenty of downvotes from those unwilling to accept there are problems in the mirror. But maybe someone will look in their own mirror and change their ways for the better…
the right doesnt want to work on trains, nor to suppress billionaires. they certainly doesnt work with us unless its on their terms.
How can the left work with the right when they are actively trying to eliminate said left.
Seems silly the left is to blame for nothing working when the right is actively hunting and disappearing the constituents of the left.
Besides, right wingers are crazy and lie to get their way all the time. A generation of reaching across the aisle has led to the country turning right more and more as concessions are only ever given to the right and never to the left.
He said that underscores the problem in the U.S., where high-speed rail has gotten politicized, even though there’s nothing inherently conservative or liberal about it. “There has to be political will,” across the spectrum, he said. “If there had been political will in California, the state would have done something other than Prop. 1A,” he said. Prop. 1A, the 2008 measure put before voters in California to build a high-speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, only authorized $10 billion, which, even at the time, was only a small fraction of what was required to see the project through.
He also stressed that even by the time France finished its first prototypes, the technology was relatively mature. “Let’s not talk about ‘innovations.’ Just bring the trains to market,” he said. And it’s because France’s TGV was based on conventional rail that it can slow down and use existing lines, immediately expanding the service and providing blended, one-seat rides throughout France. “Interoperability is a must,” he said.
Here in the PNW I’d take hourly Amtrak service in 5 years over high speed rail in 20. We should push for both, of course, but if we can drastically improve regular rail for a fraction of the price and in so doing build the constituency for HSR, we absolutely should.
Amtrak needs to start with the NEC. Boston-NYC-DC should be easy mode for running a train system. Until they get that working as it should, NYC-Chicago is next. Places like the PNW or the rest of the midwest need service, but the low handing fruit needs to be first.
Please lets work together and force them to run good service where it is easy and develop experts in running good trains. So long as you are pushing for the PNW and I’m pushing for my home we are divided and nothing will get done.
I agree that at a national level the NEC should absolutely be the priority, and that is where I would hope my federal taxes go. However, as Amtrak Cascades is a state-supported route which is primarily paid for by Washington and Oregon, I don’t see the problem with pushing those states to invest more of their transportation budgets in those routes.
How about we instead have reliabl(y delayed by multiple hours) service with spotty cell phone reception for large stretches?
