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The only thing I found lacking were footnotes and references in support of the facts stated.
The objection may be misinformed, but the original post is not misinformation.
The automobile / petroleum / paved roadway transportation system is highly subsidized at taxpayer's expense. By some estimates, over 25% of the national product is involved with it, directly or indirectly. And it is wasteful of fuel, resources, and surface area.
And tapping wind's energy requires a distribution system that would dovetail nicely with a renaissance of electric traction rail.
Transitioning to electric traction rail would reduce petroleum consumption below the current 19 million barrels / day (down from 20 million pre-2009). And if we could get that consumption below domestic production levels (approx. 9 million barrels / day), that would save America a bundle in lost wealth, as well as allow us to disengage from unsavory alliances.
Trackside windmills every 100 feet, from New York to Los Angeles?
Trackside windmills every 100 feet, from New York to Los Angeles?
That's not what was proposed.
Wind farms have a distribution problem - often being in areas that are distant from markets and distant from high tension lines. If electric rail corridors did double duty as power distribution corridors, wind farms may efficiently link into the grid at lower cost.
The OP had a good idea but blaming the government for all the problems is absurd. I place the blame on the big banks and investors that abandoned electric mass transit because more sacred growth was available in the auto/oil/roads industry.
Governments only do what their constituents want. As the real constituents are the financial industry the government bought out the electric transit system in the cities and subsidized the investments in autos. The problem is not government but who controls the government. The controllers are big finance.
The cost of electrification is high, to be sure. But by allowing better acceleration it can increase capacity. In Russia a mainline was electrified because it cost less than adding another track. It would be better if we could do that here, using American coal instead of imported oil.
The OP had a good idea but blaming the government for all the problems is absurd. I place the blame on the big banks and investors that abandoned electric mass transit because more sacred growth was available in the auto/oil/roads industry.
Governments only do what their constituents want. As the real constituents are the financial industry the government bought out the electric transit system in the cities and subsidized the investments in autos. The problem is not government but who controls the government. The controllers are big finance.
Government is not entirely to blame.
But they share a large portion of it.
Many companies that were profitable from 1890 - 1920, started to go bankrupt. It's no coincidence that streetcar companies were being milked for taxes (income tax, property tax), forced to freeze fares, and obligated to maintain the public rights of way that their tracks were upon at their own expense. Yet, their competitors on the public subsidized roads had a much lesser burden. "Governments only do what their constituents want."
You got to be kidding us!
When the nation opposed ObamaCare the government rammed it down our throats... and now all the special interests are queuing up to ask for "exemptions" from it...
The "nation" may have opposed, as I do, Obamacare but the insurance companies that wrote the law for thir benefit certainly did not.
Back on topic. I would like to see the roadbeds nationalized and converted to electric power supplied by distributed nuclear power plants with full fuel recycle. The railroad companies could them bid to use the tracks for their business. The rental could pay for the investment and the maintainence.
For what its worth I have a plan and very preliminary design for a very high speed and capacity transport system if anyone is interested. PM me.
The OP had a good idea but blaming the government for all the problems is absurd. I place the blame on the big banks and investors that abandoned electric mass transit because more sacred growth was available in the auto/oil/roads industry.
Governments only do what their constituents want. As the real constituents are the financial industry the government bought out the electric transit system in the cities and subsidized the investments in autos. The problem is not government but who controls the government. The controllers are big finance.
There is something to that (God, did I say that?).
Didn't the oil and tire companies collude to buy up streetcar systems, particularly in Los Angeles, so as to make people more likely to travel in cars?
Apparently they did but I do not remember the source. The only urban railroads that survived were in and under the major city centers. Ironically the City of the Automobile was laid out by the trolly systems.
Back on topic. I would like to see the roadbeds nationalized and converted to electric power supplied by distributed nuclear power plants with full fuel recycle.
I agree with changing the rail rights of way from private to public. That would relieve the common carriers from the tax burden for owning them. And it would eliminate the reason for competing parallel or duplicated tracks.
I agree with changing the rail rights of way from private to public. That would relieve the common carriers from the tax burden for owning them. And it would eliminate the reason for competing parallel or duplicated tracks.
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