On Sep 12, 11:53 am, "Matt Barrow"
wrote:
"Dan Luke" wrote in message

High speed rail.

If you think the unions helped crap out the airlines, you should dig into
how they absolutely trashed the railroads.

While I know the unions had their hand in what happened to the
railroads, the thing that really killed them was trying to compete
with a heavily subsidized interstate highway system.

The fact is, airline travel is not the answer for _mass_ transportation.
That is why efficiency (hub and spokes) has collided fatally with
practical limits (airport capacity and weather).

The trouble is, we have been too short-sighted for too long to correct the
situation. The cost to create the infrastructure to support HSR would
make even a congressman blanche.

Congresscritters NEVER blanche when it comes to spedning other peoples
money.

I have no doubt that they have unofficial "committees" that just sit
around trying to think up ways to get more of it.

Austin