(erielack) Bus vs Train

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

Geez Fred, I would have thought that with your new job being so much closer to home, you'd have no problem getting to work on time   ;-)   

>I would take a train or bus to work if I could. I wouldn't have gotten my speeding ticket last week if they were available here.< 

>Fred Stratton<

Seriously though, I think while all of us list members recognize the merits of rail transport, we know it will take a paradigm shift (overworked expression) to enable any significant rail renaissance. That would be specifically a major and permanent rise in the price of oil, resulting in gas and diesel in the $10 per gal range. For passenger traffic, enough successful terrorist attacks to give air travel a Russian roulette quality. The rise to dominance of highway transport, at least with freight has ocurred in every developed country, despite in some cases efforts by government to encourage traffic onto the rails. The only reason we still have a successful private enterprise rail freight system on this continent is due to the relatively vast distances, but even here rails have been marginalized into niche markets: Powder River coal, international containers, grain and chemicals. All the talk about different merger combinations, better management, earlier dereg etc is interesting but ultimately would have made no difference in the face of massive government highway building, rising affluence and cheap fuel.

Paul B     



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