The inherent strength of rail transportation

[Tyson Rayles]

"There was an idea floated around awhile ago that the US Government should purchase the nation's rail network and parcel out the routes to private company Designated Operators (much as a lot of local governments and European governments are doing)."


Talk about killing the railroad industry and while it's dying quadtripling the cost of everything transported by rail!

Look at how much Amtrak is costing us. If they took over the entire RR business there are not enough tax dollars on the planet to keep a fiasco like that afloat.

[Mike Kieran]

It's already being done on a local scale. Many shortlines are Designated Operators.

[Brakie]

Actually, the US Army decided before WW1 that railroads alone would not satisfy the logistical needs of it's transportation requirements. In 1919, the US Army got together a convoy led by General Jack Pershing and accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower for a trip from Washington DC to San Francisco. The trip took them 2 months over dirt roads and collapsing bridges.

As the Allies pushed into Germany, now General Eisenhower saw the advantages of good roads for Army logistics and as president, made it one of the world's larges public works projects. Remember, enemy saboteurs were trying to destroy rail lines and bridges, so roadways offered a back up plan for the moving of troops and equipment.

The department of defense also deemed a highway system necessary for the evacuation of large populations in case of a disaster or nuclear attack (even though the DOD films claimed that you would be safe by hiding under your dining room table).

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/interstate1.html

http://www.history.com/topics/interstate-highway-system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

That's the popular story sold to the public even though there wasn't any danger of being invaded by anybody..Never underestimate the power of the trucking lobby of that era.. The trucking industry needed those Interstates far more then the Army

Even today some Army units still move by rail-not Interstates.

[BR60103]

What better way to waste tax money than on railroads?

[MountainMan]

What better way to waste tax money than on railroads?

You mean where one gallon of diesel will move one ton of cargo 400 miles, as opposed to huge semi's choking up the highways and spewing massive carbon footprints into the air you breath?

Gee...that's a tough one...