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Obtuse, Doubled? Thoughts on Dec editorial Locked

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Posted by henry6 on Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:20 AM

Bucyrus

henry6
Jay, I do think that is a little extreme and uncalled for.

 

Henry, I am not sure if you are talking about Jay’s criticism of Jim Wrinn, or Mr. Wrinn’s contention that those who howl at his civilized view of HSR do not get it.  Could you clarify?

 

Jay's criticism of Jim Wrinn.

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Posted by henry6 on Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:29 AM

garr

 

As I have stated consistently, I like High Speed Rail, but show me how it can be done without adding to the debt load that we will be handing off to our children and grandchildren. Once that is shown, start the shovels.

If our governments would use this criteria for all non emergency projects/programs, we would all be better off in the long run.

Jay

Reactionary spendingis more costly than planned spending thus waiting for an emergency is too expensive.  Fix a broken rail or prevent a disease before there is a derailment or you contract a life threatening disease is far less costly and time consuming than waiting until there area a dozen hazardous cars strewn through a neighborhoood or you are beddridde for life. 

So, when will the emergency be in this country that we should do something about trains, health care, industry in general?  When China or some Mid Eastern or European country holds the deeds to every business and factory, every stock certificate issued by every company?  When we wake up one morning sending our hard earned money to the capital of another country?  No one is denying the cost of doing something, but what is the cost if we do nothing?

RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.

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Posted by schlimm on Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:39 AM

petitnj
And Europe's system is subsidized and expensive to ride. The per mile cost of a train ticket is typically about 3 times the coach fare of Amtrak.

 

Correction:

"European" coach fare is not 3 times the coach fare on Amtrak.  They are, in fact, quite similar.

Example:

On the DB, Berlin to Munich on an ICE train (the German HSR), 365 miles, $190 = 52 cents/mile

Amtrak, Boston to Washington Acela service (comparable to ICE), 441 miles, $248 = 56 cents/mile

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Posted by garr on Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:42 AM

henry6

When China or some Mid Eastern or European country holds the deeds to every business and factory, every stock certificate issued by every company?  When we wake up one morning sending our hard earned money to the capital of another country?  No one is denying the cost of doing something, but what is the cost if we do nothing?

Exactly how is this going to happen? As I have stated before, China, Japan, and European countries are buying USA GOVERNMENT debt. How does that translate into them owning our free enterprise corporations?

Where the problem comes in for our government is the day other countries decide our government treasuries are no longer a good investment.  

Jay

 

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Posted by schlimm on Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:42 AM

 I wonder if the outrage over deficit spending and burdening the next generation was as strong during the periods 1981-1993 and 2001-2008 as it appears to be now?

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:36 AM

    I'll be the bad guy this time.  Time to move on to trains.

-Norris

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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