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Old Posted Jul 8, 2012, 1:43 AM
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ardecila ardecila is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: the city o'wind
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYonward View Post
Yours has to be the most completely false assessment I've ever heard of this issue. The fact is that Republicans publicly equate HSR with communism and that everyone should be driving in their cars. GOP governors actually had enough insanity to reject funds for HSR. They rejected it on the basis of "cutting costs" while they ignore the jobs it would create. Privately they will cut costs only selectively to fit in with their corporate campaign donors' wishes then sell you on how "fiscally conservative" they are. It's insane.

At least California has the brains to progress.
Am I seriously the only liberal who thinks it's a bad thing when the government throws billions of dollars behind some boondoggle? The goal of any government program should be to achieve the greatest benefits for the lowest cost, while fending off those politicians who are trying to bring home the bacon (i.e. avoiding bridges to nowhere).

Every successful HSR system in the world was built on top of a successful conventional-rail system. Germany hasn't even really built dedicated HSR lines; they just upgrade the legacy systems by eliminating the slowest segments. Having a strong conventional-rail system means you have a populace that's used to riding passenger trains and supports big, expensive investments in new technology like HSR. Republican politicians don't oppose rail for the hell of it. Republican voters don't see the point, so neither do the politicians. It's time we changed that.

The proper way forward for rail in America is to run the ball and gain four or five yards at a time, not to shoot for some Hail Mary. (See? I just made a football analogy - it isn't hard to talk to most conservatives.) We need to focus on incremental improvements and gradually claim a larger budget for rail as the small improvements begin to build political support.
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