As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail

Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by muninn_ on Sunday July 02, 2017 @10:40PM (#14685528)

You're calling rail a scam (a system that works marvelously in Europe and Japan for example) and saying that the "rail industry" is out for your tax dollars, but.... did you forget about the massive highway construction industry and automotive industry?

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Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by graycat on Sunday July 02, 2017 @11:19PM (#14685638)

My view is that the auto industry has long and usually paid for itself as people buy cars (there was the 2008 bailout). For the highways, my understanding is that the Federally funded ones are paid for from the Highway Trust Fund which gets the Federal part of gasoline taxes. IIRC (I don't have good data) is that that fund is a favorite for raiding for money for other projects, maybe even trains.

So, I don't see cars as a scam. Passenger trains? Yes. Cars? No.

[ Parent | on HN ]