Awesome Bill! This needs to go out everywhere. Such an elegant solution to so many structural/ environmental problems in our country. Thanks for doing this and may this podcast and your orginazation further illuminate the greed and secrecy that is keeping this hidden from everyone.
Lots of encouraging news there, particularly the success in Minnesota and what might become a powerful (and hopefully beneficial) rail workers union. Passenger rail is a civilizing force, besides the benefits we always hear and talk about but seem to somehow never achieve realization of on any significant scale. It's not just the railroads and their racketeering: the conspiracy extends to the government regulating structure and - particularly, in the case of trying to expand/improve passenger rail - the big engineering conglomerates. Proof is, that the segment of the California High Speed Rail Project expected to open in 2028 is six miles longer than the parallel line built in the 1870s, as measured from the two terminal stations, both located on the old line. The old line is 110 miles long, and has a fifty-mile-long tangent, perfect for high speed, as opposed to the expense and wasted maintenance of constantly grinding around high-speed curves of the new line. It should rightly be removed at the perpetrators' expense. The government, fused at the hip with the major freight rail companies, did everything within their power to prevent use of the correct route (the old line, down to one rickety track in places) including the fraudulent ploy of requiring a 40-foot high, 10'-wide concrete and steel wall be built between the two modes of rail traffic - for safety's sake! They did the same thing in Texas. The Texas Central project was designed by the FRA, and they prepared the Shinkansren regulations published in the Federal Register at some huge government expense. Even the Train Daddy, Andy Byford appears flummoxed by their BS of proposing a too-high bridge in Dallas that encroaches on someone's property yet doesn't offer much advantage of abbreviation, speed or scheduling. They've done it in England too, EVEN England, where the HS2 Boondoggle plows through every golf course and grave yard they could find, at the expense of a shorter, more direct, faster route. I'm not saying one should open with a hostile attitude towards the people one needs to deal with in American Railroading, but it's necessary to be aware, and conversant enough in matters of planning to call them when they try and put one over. No one in public life I'm aware of seems to have the necessary discernment to obviate the kind of destructive developments they seek to impose on us - etched in stone and steel of practical permanence. In that respect I guess you could say "American rail culture" is dead.
Well Bruce, we hope to revive "American Rail Culture.' I am in fervent agreement in regards to the issue of boondoggles. Here's an OpEd I got into the Seattle Times about a year ago. https://www.solutionaryrail.org/stop-ed202401 (In the end, we have not dodged this bullet train boondoggle just yet. Hopefully the new governor of WA state will get us back on track.
FYI - We are working hard on the next two episodes. A tour through the history of US passenger rail - which out of necessity - includes a lot about rail in general. The first segment basically ranges from Granger laws to the dawn of Amtrak. The second part will pick up from Amtrak and take us to present day efforts to return rail service.
What an excellent podcast. I am learning so much!
What a ray of sunshine in a bleak civic climate. People need more hope-filled projects like this they can rally around. We need to get this done!
Awesome Bill! This needs to go out everywhere. Such an elegant solution to so many structural/ environmental problems in our country. Thanks for doing this and may this podcast and your orginazation further illuminate the greed and secrecy that is keeping this hidden from everyone.
Bill !! May the Force be with you !! Keep shining light on this brilliant project !! And yes, everyone, he could use some financial support !
Lots of encouraging news there, particularly the success in Minnesota and what might become a powerful (and hopefully beneficial) rail workers union. Passenger rail is a civilizing force, besides the benefits we always hear and talk about but seem to somehow never achieve realization of on any significant scale. It's not just the railroads and their racketeering: the conspiracy extends to the government regulating structure and - particularly, in the case of trying to expand/improve passenger rail - the big engineering conglomerates. Proof is, that the segment of the California High Speed Rail Project expected to open in 2028 is six miles longer than the parallel line built in the 1870s, as measured from the two terminal stations, both located on the old line. The old line is 110 miles long, and has a fifty-mile-long tangent, perfect for high speed, as opposed to the expense and wasted maintenance of constantly grinding around high-speed curves of the new line. It should rightly be removed at the perpetrators' expense. The government, fused at the hip with the major freight rail companies, did everything within their power to prevent use of the correct route (the old line, down to one rickety track in places) including the fraudulent ploy of requiring a 40-foot high, 10'-wide concrete and steel wall be built between the two modes of rail traffic - for safety's sake! They did the same thing in Texas. The Texas Central project was designed by the FRA, and they prepared the Shinkansren regulations published in the Federal Register at some huge government expense. Even the Train Daddy, Andy Byford appears flummoxed by their BS of proposing a too-high bridge in Dallas that encroaches on someone's property yet doesn't offer much advantage of abbreviation, speed or scheduling. They've done it in England too, EVEN England, where the HS2 Boondoggle plows through every golf course and grave yard they could find, at the expense of a shorter, more direct, faster route. I'm not saying one should open with a hostile attitude towards the people one needs to deal with in American Railroading, but it's necessary to be aware, and conversant enough in matters of planning to call them when they try and put one over. No one in public life I'm aware of seems to have the necessary discernment to obviate the kind of destructive developments they seek to impose on us - etched in stone and steel of practical permanence. In that respect I guess you could say "American rail culture" is dead.
Well Bruce, we hope to revive "American Rail Culture.' I am in fervent agreement in regards to the issue of boondoggles. Here's an OpEd I got into the Seattle Times about a year ago. https://www.solutionaryrail.org/stop-ed202401 (In the end, we have not dodged this bullet train boondoggle just yet. Hopefully the new governor of WA state will get us back on track.
FYI - We are working hard on the next two episodes. A tour through the history of US passenger rail - which out of necessity - includes a lot about rail in general. The first segment basically ranges from Granger laws to the dawn of Amtrak. The second part will pick up from Amtrak and take us to present day efforts to return rail service.