The Chinese are a complicated lot. On the one hand, they're building a new coal-fired power plant every four or five or six days, depending on who's counting, an endeavor that cost them $248 billion in hidden costs last year "through damage to the environment, strain on the health care system and manipulation of the commodity's price" says Greenpeace. On the other, they've just announced that they're going to spend the equivalent of $280 billion enhancing their passenger rail network. Impressive. Just imagine if we dumped a proportional $75 billion into American passenger rail.
Actually, we need to spend much more than that. But $75 billion would be a nice start toward the goal of putting passenger cars on every kilometer of rail in the country. It is perhaps worth digging up some quotes from James Kunstler at this juncture. Here's something from 2007:
It is imperative that we restore the US passenger railroad system. No other project we could do right away would have such a positive impact on our oil consumption....
The infrastructure for this great task is lying out there rusting in the rain. This project would put scores of thousands of people to work at meaningful jobs, at every level, from labor to management. It would benefit all ranks of society. Fixing the US passenger rail system doesn't require any great technological leaps into the unknown. The technology is thoroughly understood. The fact that from end-to-end of the political spectrum there is no public discussion about fixing the US passenger rail system shows how un-serious we are.
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By the way, it is important that we electrify our railroad system. All the other advanced nations have electric rail systems which allow them to run on something other than fossil fuel or to control the source point of the carbon emissions and pollution in the case of coal-fired power generation. Electric motors are far simpler and way more efficient even than diesel engines. The US was well underway with the project of electrifying our railroad system, but we just gave up after the Second World War as we directed all our investment to the interstate highway system instead.
The AP reported recently that "Amtrak carried a record 28.7 million people last year, with each of its routes seeing gains," and representing an 11% rise over last year. Much of that was due to high gas prices, but if most of those new riders are like me, it won't take them long to prefer the train to commuting by car. And we haven't even mentioned the climate connection...
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Please let's bring back electric trolleys for mass transit.
Here in California we have a prop up this election, Prop 1A, that would put some 95 million into new, high speed train that would link up most of the state. Looks pretty cool to me. Also here in Santa Cruz (and I've heard that our in-state Rival, Huntington Beach) there are plans to have a "Personal Rapid Transit" system, to try to reduce automotive transit - It's be a light-rail type system, but each car would hold something like 4 or 5 people- kind of like the old "People Mover" at Disney Land, only it would actually take you to a destination...
Electric motors may be more efficient than deisel, but that does not mean that the entire power transmission chain is.
Bringing back the trains, and trolleys, would be smart. It would save us huge amounts of energy, would go a long way toward ending our dependence on foreign oil, would save thousands of lives every year and would save each individual using it time, perhaps several hours a day versus a long commute in a car.
So much more the shame that it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Cars are symbolically tied to individuality and freedom. Coming of age learning to drive and getting the keys to the car are touchstones of coming of age even when the actual events weren't so heartfelt and sweet.
On the other hand mass transit, in this culture, smacks of poverty, dependence and 'socialism'.
Railroads are the least subsidized form of transportation in the US. Highways are built, maintained and patrolled at taxpayers expense. An expense not really touched by the gas taxes.
Airlines have airports, radar and the flight control and security built and run for them at taxpayers expense.
River traffic has dams, locks aids to navigation and USCG enforcement provided by the taxpayers.
It is only railroads that are forced to buy and maintain their own routes. It is only railroads that are forced to pay for their own security, traffic control and rules enforcement along these routes.
If the playing field were leveled, either RRs getting the benefits the other modalities receive or other modalities being forced to pay their own way (like that's going to happen), then the inherent efficiency of rail travel would shine through and demonstrate its price advantages. RRs would soak up perhaps half of all highway passenger travel, perhaps two-thirds the cargo, and likely at least half of the airline passenger miles. This is unlikely to make the car makers, and associated industries, truckers, or airline executives very happy.
Odds are that like the family that finds their genius child a threat, and so tell her she is stupid and worthless while keeping her locked in the basement to keep her gifts under wraps, all the other transportation industries have and will systematically derided and hobble the railroads out of fear that if the gifted child is allowed out they will be made obsolete.
It isn't going to happen anytime soon. Our national self image and powerful vested interests are all arrayed against the RRs.
So much more the shame.