Comments on: Driving on to Irrelevance: That Or a 21st Century Train System

By: Jerry Alter

Jerry Alter — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:49:04 +0000

Mr. Downs,
i read your report on Driving on to Irrelevance — That or a 21st Century Train System. Robert Samuelson is talking crazy! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He should realize that we need high speed trains because our freeways and airlines are too jammed and airports are too far away from city centers and security problems at airports. There needs to be a high speed rail line from Cleveland, Ohio, to Nashville, Tenn., serving Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati and Louisville and one from Cleveland to Pittsburgh.

By: Donald Monteith

Donald Monteith — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:50:11 +0000

Tom is “right on”, and the other guy is either un-educated or taking a “pay-off” for his efforts to keep spending ourselves to ruin, and all the other pains that we suffer by wasting “road money”. Why does the trucking industry use rail for all the long hauls that they can, and UPS ships most of their packages over 600 miles (except dedicated air-freight) via rail! This guy is just outdated, not thinking, or doesn’t understand the problem. According to the latest Facts that I can find (2007 ) on freight hauled in the USA, rail handled 1,819,633 ton-miles of freight vs. 1,317,061 for trucks, plus Millions of passengers!
Source ( US DOT – “RITA” , BTS)
Sincerely, Donald Monteith 49720-0756

By: Gary Allen

Gary Allen — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:00:43 +0000

Hey, I can understand this column and even understand thinking innovation, but when one usually does in my restrospect of life and submit for grants first to continue to advance and put out more innovative ideas along with the ones that already needed to be examined and payed for, and then denied, not yet listing the replitude that your around non innovative people who can not understand you and I believe only intent is to misfocus on who is innovation and ones life. Hey, what good is it to be an innovative thinker at all, especially if there are no rewards for this except to put innovation into place. Do we as innovative thinkers not also have the priority to live better lives or are we just suppose to submit innovative thoughts and struggle with less than what we need?

By: Carol S. Kohn

Carol S. Kohn — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:22:11 +0000

We really do need the high speed rail here in Illinois for all of the passanger trains! There are parts of Illinois who used to have train service that no longer do and it would ease up on the heavy car traffic on the highways for those who live in the Quad Cities area and also down in the Peoria area to get to Chicago and other places instead of having to drive to get to their locations where they’re trying to go to!

By: larry keller

larry keller — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:25:55 +0000

Don’t throw money at the freight lines; let them use their profits to maintain the tracks. Build passenger cars. There is no excuse for a full train. Detroit factories could use the work. Build stations and bathrooms. Use older cars for the cheap seats. Our goal here is to get people off of the highways, not rich people out of airplanes. Finally, take those long passenger trains and turn them up to 150mph on the straights and slow order them on the curves. We can do this with what we have now!

By: Ken Fritz

Ken Fritz — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:13:51 +0000

Congress has it all wrong. The amount spent on highways should be substantially less than that invested in high speed rail. As a country we need to subsidize high speed rail and other rail options and stop throwing money into asphalt. I love my car, but for longer trips moving frieght and people we should have a sound rail system and not some iron age throw back.

By: Karin Craig

Karin Craig — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:13:18 +0000

After reading the column posted regarding high speed rail, it’s economical justifications and the extreme costs that would be saved for the American people by adhering to this new and innovative mode of transportation as is the rest of the growing and insightful countries in this world…..it is my firm understanding, now, that this is a great opportunity for America to grow up with these countires, stop being ignorant and behind in their mode of thinking and decision making. It’s plain as day the usefulness of High Speed Rail Transportation.

By: Art Hobson

Art Hobson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:40:40 +0000

I’m a physicist who has been thinking about transportation issues for decades, and this is one of the most perceptive transportation articles I’ve seen. Most importantly, he gets the indirect costs of automobile transportation right. The many studies conducted about this issue conclude that the price of the automobile’s unpaid indirect costs is between $10 and $25 per gallon. Trains are the way the U.S. needs to go!

By: george beck

george beck — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:22:20 +0000

Highspeed Rail works only if the tracks are dedicated
to passenger service and there are no crossings at grade.
Also if the general public has access to the right of way
they might be found walking or hiking on the tracks or
various recreational activities or vandalizing and placing
objects on the tracks out of curiosity.
What if there is heavy snow ? I dont want to hit snow at
110 mph .

By: David L Chittenden

David L Chittenden — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:17:09 +0000

My wife and I totally agree.
We have traveled on trains through out Europe
and have had great safe experiences going from
city centers to city centers. The smaller local trains
have also been wonderful