The Future Of Rail

photo: Tiddlycove in FrEAKING NEWS 

There is a blog and there is a letter about Amtrak:http://www.kunstler.com/Grunt_trains_and_planes2.html 

People are always talking about "Manhattan Projects" to solve the energy crisis. 

As pointed out before, such projects do not stand a chance at present because they are totally government controlled and directed. The US government did not stand around and wait patiently while the free market system came up with an atomic bomb on its own. 

Of course, logically speaking, the Iraq War is a sort of "Manhattan Project" itself, being totally government controlled. No free market there. 

A government subsidized rail system is logically a "Manhattan Project", although it is truly a messed up project and has been so for 50 years or so. The problem is (1) a vision of the desired transportation system, and (2) the political will to implement. 

Recall when Dwight Eisenhower proposed the interstate highway system. That was one humungous investment in infrastructure. Since that time, we have become afraid of investment in infrastructure. We do not want to save; we wish to consume now. It's rather as if every road were a toll-road, and once we drove over it, it vanished into nothingness. ( After 9/11, if we had had an moderately sharp president, he would have not said "Go shopping!", rather he would have said "Save for investments in the future of America!")

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