Sorry so few posts this week; I caught a cold in Washington, DC — one of the hazards of travel.
However, NPR has an interesting article about high-speed rail. If you have comments, please leave them on NPR’s web site to let NPR know people are interested in the issue. (Go ahead and leave comments here too if you want.)
ROT: Sorry so few posts this week; I caught a cold in Washington, DC  one of the hazards of travel.
THWM: You could have drove across town and caught a cold too.
I luv it highwayman! We’re so contrarian on here we can’t even let a man complain about his travels without calling him out. (For the truth of the matter is, THWM, if he had driven by car he wouldn’t have been exposed to as many germs. Factor that into travel efficiency. I’m kidding, please don’t)
For that matter Mr.O’Toole gets paid to complain!
Antiplanner wrote:
“Throughout the world and throughout history, passenger trains have been used mainly by a wealthy elite…”
I’d like to see some evidence for this somewhat sweeping statement.
The railways of the 19C in the UK were built using strictly private funding, without subsidy. Ordinary people used the railways for personal travel and freight. The railways were profitable, and changed the economic situation in the country radically. Rural branch lines halved the cost of coal in the cities, and doubled the price of milk – the latter, because milk would arrive in town in a much better condition.
“…and have never given the average people of any nation as much mobility as our interstate highways.”
Increased mobility means that people move further away from each other. I can’t see the point of this.
O’Toole: “We have a choice between a transportation system that everyone uses and that pays for itself, or one that requires everyone to pay through their taxes but that is used by only a small elite.”
THWM: It’s nice of comrade O’Toole to defend the proletariat by saying this.
Having been training through Europe, it is obvious that it is a great way to tour around, but it is hard to see how it pays for itself.
So, roads don’t make money.
I don’t get money from people who drive past my house.
Maybe you want to live in a private police state, but I don’t!
ROT, can you substantiate your claims that “trains are for tourists”?
He can’t, that’s just it.
ws asked:
> ROT, can you substantiate your claims that “trains are for tourists”?
and
the highwayman [sic] asserted:
> He can’t, that’s just it.
I’m not Randal (and I don’t play him on TV), but here are trip data from 2001 from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (full report here):
Personal vehicle 89.5%
Air 7.4%
Bus 2.1%
Train 0.8%
Other 0.2%
All travel when computed as a function of passenger-miles of travel in 2002 (source here):
Air carrier 9.7%
General aviation (undefined)
Passenger car 52.8%
Light truck 33.7%
Motorcycle 0.2%
Bus 2.9%
Transit, excluding bus 0.5%
Amtrak 0.1%
C. P. Zilliacus:
My comments and highwayman’s were in regards to Randal’s “trains are for tourists” assertion. The data that you are presenting does not give any information regarding transportation and tourism.
C. P. Zilliacus said: I’m not Randal (and I don’t play him on TV):
THWM: Then Randal might as well have told us that “Trix are for kids”.
ws wrote:
> My comments and highwayman’s were in regards to Randal’s “trains are for tourists” assertion.
> The data that you are presenting does not give any information regarding transportation and
> tourism.
[Begin quote of my previous posts]
Share of long-distance travel – Train 0.8%
Passenger-Miles of Travel by Mode –
Transit, excluding bus 0.5%
Amtrak 0.1%
[End quote of my previous posts]
Based on the above numbers, maybe Randal should have written trains are not for most travelers?
Randal O’Toole does what he does for a political agenda and nothing more.
What ever he(or Cox) writes is worthless to begin with.
Francis King summed up most of the debates on this blog: “Increased mobility means that people move further away from each other. I can’t see the point of this.”
Most debates here are about whether you agree or disagree with this statement.