Red Tape Hurdles

There are some oversimplified narratives our nation entertains as if the events they describe happen in a vaccum. They're usually used to deflect responsibility for a problem from those who can actuall fix the problem.



Like "Teachers are responsible for the state of public education, and blaming school administrators, school boards, state offices and state legislatures are just excuses." Or "Blighted properties exist because poor people don't take care of the large and valuable properties they own, and cities can't do anything about it."



Another big one is "Amtrak specifically and trains in general don't make money," as if laws didn't exist to specifically make their overhead more expensive and hamstring their ability to make money and possibly turn a profic.



As if the laws Amtrak must follow rained upon the organization out of the clear blue sky.



And let's not even talk about how their competition is able to "make money."



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Will Build Train for Water

High speed rail from Atlanta to Chattanooga (and later to Nashville). In exchange, Atlanta gets water from the Tennessee River. Sounds win, win to me.

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The Rail Problem

McArdle knocks this one out of the park by describing how high-speed rail advocates sabotage their own efforts.

The point is not trains for the sake of trains. The point is a viable transportation option that delivers a return on an investment.

Instead of a Tampa-to-Orlando showcase, let's get moving on the Southeastern High Speed Rail Corridor. That line can terminate in New Orleans, after expanding to Birmingham and Hattiesburg.

And you know what city is already reading the writing on the wall? Atlanta. They've recently started moving forward on design.

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Whistle Stop

Conservatives don't hate trains, people who play conservatives on TV and talk radio hate trains.

Real conservatives are concerned with the way we pay for trains, just like they're concerned with the way we pay for NPR and a host of other things they think government shouldn't do. That's why I like discussing politics with real conservatives, because reality is refreshing. If real conservatives are cool with subsidies for the airline industry, the auto industry, road construction and oil companies, they can probably be convinced to get behind subsidies for trains and mass transit, too. If they're against subsidies for trains, then they can probably be convinced to abandon the subsidies for the airlines, auto industry, road construction and oil companies (which would make train transport and mass transit more competitive). Furthermore, real conservatives are more likely to be convinced of the need to "diversify" the transportation portfolio while facing the reality of rising gasoline prices.

Because real conservatism is about pragmatism, the bottom line, and facts.

People who play conservatives on TV and talk radio, on the other hand, hate trains because teh ebil libruls who want trains are really Kenyan-anti-colonial Marxist Fascist Nazi Mau-Maus coming to destroy America (with the help of yOu-knOw-whO), and they're going to do it by making you give up your SUV and force you to ride trains (with, umm, those other people) because that's how the Marxists turned Europe and France into teh socialismz! What did Mussolini do? He made the trains run on time! And how did Lawrence destroy the "caliphate" in Arabia? He attacked their trains! Trains are TEH EBIL! Except when America's founders worked tirelessly to free the slaves by using the underground railroad built by well-paid non-union labor back when the EPA still let folks use coal dug out of West-by-God-Virginia by even more well-paid non-union labor. It all comes back to history, as Glenn Beck would say.

So, until the real conservatives can be found, we're stuck with that last group of folks. Which means we won't get trains until gasoline really is $8, and at that point, it will be teh ebil libruls and their environmental studies and labor laws keeping us from building trains and mass transit fast enough...

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