TreeHugger's quote of the day is from Kunstler, complaining (in true reversalist fashion) that the US shouldn't be thinking about new high speed rail links but should instead be trying to regenerate the old rail system -
Quote of the Day: Jim Kunstler on High Speed Rail.
James Howard Kunstler thinks the new high speed rail proposal is a mistake, part of "a massive campaign to sustain the unsustainable."
One very plain and straightforward example at hand is the announcement last week of a plan to build a high speed rail network. To be blunt about it, this is perfectly f*****g stupid. It will require a whole new track network, because high speed trains can't run on the old rights of way with their less forgiving curve ratios and grades. We would be so much better off simply fixing up and reactivating the normal-speed track system that is sitting out there rusting in the rain -- and save our more grandiose visions for a later time.
I don't like to be misunderstood. With the airlines in a business death spiral, and mass motoring doomed, we need a national passenger rail system desperately. But we already have one that used to be the envy of the world before we abandoned it. And we don't have either the time or the resources to build a new parallel network.
It is a very good point-fix what we have first.
Quote - "a massive campaign to sustain the unsustainable."
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I stole this quote from him or vise versa... Several years ago I cautioned the CA hydrogen highway and high speed rail projects that exceeded the states GDP as the technology was 'not ready for prime time' (still a decade away). There were so many relevant issues beyond the capital and OEM maint. costs.
Yet all DOE/DOT supporting data I submitted seemed irrelevant.
Regardless, we have spent 10-20 Billion alone on these two projects that are not in 'public' use or even offer a viable model for the future (this is not how to do either).
Improvements to rail, mass transportation and H2 demonstrations are vital to our future. Yet the only examples these programs have produced is a plan for economic collapse.
I will not try to imagine what this money could have done for geothermal or solar in CA as I am trying to keep down my lunch.
How much is CA behind$$$? Track the impractical and misguided energy projects and you may have found the hole in the boat.