Re: People and railroads

hank Wrote:
--------------------------------------------------
> Most of us just don't have a clue as to how much
> of the 'murrican economy still depends on trains,
> large or small.  People think of them as some-
> thing from old movies, not part of today's world.
>
> . . . As far as I can see, tis the same nationwide.


Sad but true, Hank -

But shut down the railroads and there'll ten times as many trucks on the roads, and THEN the same yo-yos will bitch about traffic congestion.

A two-track railroad can carry eight to ten times as many people or tons of freight as six lanes of freeway (that require ten times as much right-of-way, and use far more fossil fuel in the process), but the complaining anti-railroad crowd are the same people opposing freeway expansion and oil exploration.  Electrification of the major railroad lines would be extremely expensive, but much cheaper in the long run than converting all big-rig trucks to battery power.  But thanks to the (deliberate, IMHO) dumbing-down of our schools and news media, must duh'murikans don't have the foggiest idea of how dependent our economy is on efficient transportation.

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender