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[quote user="blue streak 1"]   <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> Sam1:</div> <div>     <blockquote>The key question is what is the role of passengers trains in the nation's transport mix?  </blockquote>   <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </div> </blockquote>   Nope:  There is a much broader question that is not beiing addressed.  "How can we most   effectively   get  anyone or anything from any point A to any point B?" This calls for many metrics such as least time, least cost ( a very broad categorgy ) Going at convient time, comfort, impediments for people and freight going A to B, overnight considerations, upgrading infrastructure to improve the above,  etc, etc. All the posts the last few years only scratch at the surface of this basic problem of definition. Just to cover the history of how the solutions have arrived  would be a daunting task. Just take the decline in the 1920s due to the automobile and light trucks being faster than many short line RRs and interburbans. If they had been upgraded to faster speeds what then? Until there is a rational transportation policy the question is not answered. IMHO that is one major function of government.  California has scratched the surface with its plans so far but has a long way to go. [/quote] I disagree.   The United States has had an evolving transport framework for transport since the beginning of the republic. It has shifted to accomodate new technologies and preferences, but it has served the nation well.  Following WWII the emphasis was placed on highways and airways.  That was what Americans wanted.  And no it did not come about because of the highway or airway lobbys.  As has been pointed out by others, Americans are not dupes. They understood straightaway that cars and airplanes were better options for most passenger transport, They also understood that trucks are better for many classes of freight than rail transport. To insinuate that Americans are dupes is an insult to them and to democracy. The framework has generated arguably the best airway and highway systems in the world.  Contrary to the comments of some of the people who post to these forums, the system is not falling apart.  It is stretched at a the seems in some places, but they are being fixed.  The greatest tribute to the system, however, is the extent to which the model, sans the rail piece, has been adopted in many other countries, although as I have said what they do in other countries has nothing to do with what we should or should not do in this country. A framework, unlike a top down statist solution, i.e. centralized government generated plans that don't work in the long run because no one is smart enough to understand the big picture, allows lots of wiggle room.  From time to time the framework needs to be corrected.  This is the case with the question of where does passenger rail fit into the scheme. We know where cars, trucks, and airplanes fit into the picture. The question is where would passenger trains plug a hole that exists in the current picture.  One does not need a start all over again picture from Washington to answer the question.  Most grand schemes don't work.  They collapse from their own bureaucratic weight.  Just ask the Russians!     The federal government took control of the railroads in WWI.  It was a disaster.  Moreover, under a centralized regulator scheme, the ICC, as well as the FRA, exercised top down control over America's railroads. Centralized planning at its very best. As a result, because the bureaucrats did not get the picture, their policies, procedures, and practices nearly destroyed the railroads.  Mercifully, at the stroke of midnight, Staggers saved the day.  Centralized planning and rate setting were junked.  The railroads were allowed to rationalized their system, i.e. abandoning thousands of miles of unused and underused track and shedding thousands of feather bedding employees.  What was the result?  Today America's major carriers have balance sheets and income statements that are the envy of the business community.
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