<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Boy Viz,<br><br>The world is coming to an end. I agree with both Kai and Gier at the same time! Other than not throwing babies in blenders, this is probably the only issue all three of us agree on. <br><br>I think speed rail would lower housing costs too because you can build where land is cheap and still get to work one or two states away. <br><br>Best Regards,<br><br>Donovan<br><br>--- On <b>Wed, 2/4/09, Kai <span>Eiselein</span>, Editor <i><editor@lataheagle.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: Kai Eiselein, Editor <editor@lataheagle.com><br>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] High-Speed Rail is Key to Infrastructure Renewal<br>To: nickgier@roadrunner.com, vision2020@moscow.com<br>Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 4:53 PM<br><br><pre>Hades hath frozen over.<br>I
actually agree with Nick on most of this. Rail is comfortable, efficient <br>and fast, at least that was my experience on the Long Island Railroad over <br>the holidays (We won't talk about Amtrak who's service is abysmal<br>failure).<br>I made one rather stressful commute by car to pick up my daughter at JFK, <br>the rest of the trips we made into the city were all by train and all much <br>less stressful.<br><br>--------------------------------------------------<br>From: <nickgier@roadrunner.com><br>Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 9:41 AM<br>To: <vision2020@moscow.com><br>Subject: [Vision2020] High-Speed Rail is Key to Infrastructure Renewal<br><br>> Good Morning Visionaries:<br>><br>> My infrastructure file was so large that I didn't know where to begin,<br><br>> until my childhood passion (inspired by my father, who was a trainmaster <br>> on the UP during WWII) for trains helped me make the first cut in the <br>>
material. There is enough in the file for at least one or two more <br>> columns.<br>><br>> One of the sad ironies of infrastructure renewal is that Goldman Sachs and<br><br>> Morgan Stanley were raising huge amounts of private money for <br>> infrastructure before they both crashed.<br>><br>> The full version with the iconic image of bullet train/Mt.Fuji/cherry <br>> blossoms is attached. I not only saw Mt. Fuji from a bullet train but also<br><br>> from my hotel room during my last visit in December 2007.<br>><br>> I know some purist are going to say that no one except silly Americans <br>> call them bullet trains, but Shinkansen means "grand trunk<br>line," which is <br>> not very sexy at all.<br>><br>> By the way newspaper editors and spell checkers refuse to recognize my <br>> great new word "free marketeers," whose antics now in the wake<br>of <br>> capitalism on speed and greed are just as
amusing as the Mouseketeers. How<br><br>> many of you got to be Mouseketeers on your local TV stations in the 1950s?<br><br>> I did, but I somehow never got my ears! I never got further than Webelo <br>> in Boy Scouts either.<br>><br>> Nick Gier<br>><br>> HIGH-SPEED RAIL IS KEY TO INFRASTRUCTURE RENEWAL<br>><br>> The U.S. will not be able to compete in the world economy without a <br>> substantial rebuilding of its infrastructure. Our great success in the <br>> last century was due not only to individual initiative and innovation, but<br><br>> also to government investment in railways, roads, and waterways.<br>><br>> In 2005 America’s civil engineers gave the nation’s infrastructure a<br>“D” <br>> grade, and they estimated that it would take $1.6 trillion over five years<br><br>> for proper upgrades. Only about one third of Obama’s $825 billion <br>> stimulus package will go to
infrastructure with only $30 billion for roads<br><br>> and a mere $10 billion for mass transit and railways.<br>><br>> Currently China invests 9 percent of its gross national product in <br>> infrastructure, European nations lay out 5 percent, but the U.S. gives <br>> only 2.4 percent. The last major project was the interstate highway <br>> system, initiated by President Eisenhower at a cost of $400 billion in <br>> today’s dollars. The federal gas tax, the main source of revenue for<br>road <br>> building and maintenance, has not been raised since 1993, and the Highway <br>> Trust Fund is $4 billion in debt.<br>><br>> Europeans pay much more in fuel taxes: the Brits pay 50 cents per liter <br>> while we pay only 8 cents per liter. High European fuel taxes pay for good<br><br>> roads and superb public transportation, including some of the fastest <br>> trains in the world. Amtrak’s Acela train averages only
79 mph between<br>New <br>> York and Washington, while the EuroStar between London and Paris averages <br>> 136 mph.<br>><br>> When I traveled to Japan for the first time to give some lectures in 1983,<br><br>> I could not wait to ride on a bullet train. As I stood on the platform at <br>> Tokyo’s main station, I was amazed to see these high-speed trains <br>> departing for every major city within minutes of each other. In 1983 the <br>> bullet trains’ top speed was 130 mph, but when I went back in 2002 I was<br><br>> sometimes moving along at 186 mph.<br>><br>> Japan’s bullet trains first began operation in 1964, and after<br>forty-five <br>> years of service, there have been no deaths, no major injuries, and only <br>> one derailment, which was caused by an earthquake in October 2004. In <br>> stark contrast, from 1997-2003 Amtrak accidents killed 96 and left 1,328 <br>> injured.<br>><br>>
Drawing on Japanese and European technology, China is now building its own<br><br>> bullet trains. By 2012 new tracks between Beijing-Shanghai will carry <br>> passengers at 236 mph and consume only 12.7 KW per passenger, the most <br>> energy efficient public travel in the world.<br>><br>> California is leading the way with high-speed rail. Voters have approved <br>> tens of billions of dollars in bonds, $9 billion alone for a Los <br>> Angeles-San Francisco line that would reduce travel time to 2.5 hours.<br>><br>> It is estimated that 160,000 construction jobs would be created with <br>> 450,000 permanent jobs by 2035. Moving Californians out of their cars <br>> would save $12.7 million barrels of oil per year, and 12 billion fewer <br>> pounds of carbon dioxide would be released into the air.<br>><br>> President Obama’s long-range plan is for an infrastructure investment <br>> bank, whose capital would
be raised on the basis of 3 private dollars to <br>> one federal dollar. It is estimated that 47,500 jobs will be created for <br>> every $1 billion spent.<br>><br>> The most unfortunate fact, however, is that the turbines for our wind <br>> farms will have to be imported from Denmark and the bullet trains most <br>> likely will come from China. The greatest manufacturing economy in world <br>> history has now taken second place to a nation that, only 50 years ago, <br>> was a poor peasant society.<br>><br>> It did not have to this way. With better industrial planning, taboo among<br><br>> free markeeters, the U.S. could still be a world leading in making the <br>> things that the world needs.<br>><br>> Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.<br>><br><br><br><br>> =======================================================<br>> List services made available by First Step
Internet,<br>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br>> http://www.fsr.net<br>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>> =======================================================<br>Kai Eiselein<br>Editor, Latah Eagle <br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================</pre></blockquote></td></tr></table><br>