Franklin Delano Biden
I read this at Eschaton and it made me teary eyed.
BIden’s Remarks as prepared at governor’s meeting:
On infrastructure specifically, we have a huge opportunity. China invests 7-9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure projects. We invest just 1 percent. There’s a reason they have a mag-lev train that can go over 200 miles per hour.
I may have a bit of a pro-rail bias, but think of the jobs we could create – in both construction and innovation – if we made similarly bold investments here.
We should fast-track funding for the thousands of ready-to-go projects across the country that can quickly put people back to work and lay the foundation for long-term growth.
In the longer term, we are calling for the creation of a new National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will help us make the investments we need to build a 21st century transportation system – while creating jobs and taking the politics out of infrastructure spending. And it has the added benefit of making American business more competitive in the world.
I’m not buying it.
Mag lev!
A long, long time ago I wrote a proposal to do an Environmental Impact Statement for a possible maglev test bed between DC and Baltimore. Neither the EIS or the test bed went anywhere, but some rail investments in the places where rail is very highly used makes alot of sense. A nationwide rail system probably makes much less sense…..
Monorails!! And ski-lifts!! And pony farms!! YESSS
On second thought George is right.
A much better plan would be to continue to push capital on the wealthy so they can stash it in Switzerland and the Caymans for safe keeping.
I hope some of the stimulus that we’ll be getting will beef up passenger rail and other forms of public transportation.
George is the reason why the public transportation system (and I include roads and bridges) are falling apart.
“George is the reason why the public transportation system (and I include roads and bridges) are falling apart.”
Roads and Bridges =/= public transportation. Public transportation doesn’t work here because outside of cities everyone has a car so no one uses it and that will never change. We could raise taxes a build a maglev which no one will ever use or we could just let folks hold onto their money. You already know which option I like.
“Public transportation doesn’t work here because everyone has a car so no one will use it and that will never change. We could raise taxes a build a subway which no one will ever use or we could just let folks hold onto their money. You already know which option I like.”
With very little editing Tom sounds just like the folks who opposed building the Washington DC metro system.
Really, everyone in DC has a car?
The suburban counties were the big complainers. There were market research studies that said people in Bethesda would not use the metro to commute downtown unless there was a stop within 50 paces of thier work.
Luckly, those Republicans complainers were ignored.
People in Georgetown specifically had the Metro bypass them. A thing they regret now.
And there is a plan for a new Purple line to hit the burbs if they can get funding for it. One of the DC lessons is that property proximate to the Metro really increased in value as the Metro became popular.
And the train system works pretty efficiently in the Northeast, Chicagoland area and SF to LA. It is dodgy anywhere else, but if you can increase the radius of how far people can get in a few hours (to compete with the airlines) it is certainly possible to get more efficiency out of it.
“if you can increase the radius of how far people can get in a few hours (to compete with the airlines) it is certainly possible to get more efficiency out of it.”
AMTRAK already does it. The only person who uses that is Biden.
… and that will never change.
famous last words
AMTRAK already does it. The only person who uses that is Biden.
Pay attention, please. maglev would be an upgrade to what we have now.
And just because you don’t use the train doesn’t mean that lots of other folks do. Catch the Acela train from Wilmington to DC one morning. They are doing bangup business.
It’s been cheaper to fly than to take the train.
I would love to take Amtrak or Acela to NYC or DC….but it’s amazingly expensive.
Hopefully these potential plans will lessen the costs….THEN you will see ridership go way up.
Cassandra:
You EIS proposal for the maglev “test bed” between DC and Baltimore must’ve been ahead of its time. See http://www.bwmaglev.com/ to find out more about just such a thing.
Turns out that, despite the naysayers and their catchall negativity, there’s an active maglev community out there — visit http://usmaglevcoalition.com and check out the “maglev projects” — and we’re planning to get busy in the new year to make VP Biden proud…