Railroads: A nineteenth century technology that can save 21st century resources

I am a trucker and the trucking industry has made changes in the fuel,the way the engines run on low sulfer fuels, some-states are putting a limit on idle-times, and with the high price of fuel no one can afford to idle anymore but the railroad hasn't had any kind of new regs on the locomotive engines in decades

i wish we americans could travel around the states the way that europeans can get around on their rails. i've always been jealous of that. i'm glad that obama acknowledged in his acceptance speech that we should invest more into amtrak. i think that's going to be very important going forward. years and years ago america invested heavily in superhighways (like I-95 on the east coast for example) and at the same time europe was investing in railways. i think they made the better decision

I always viewed the locomotive as a coal exhaling monstrosity I was unaware of its efficiency. Then again where I live there are no trains, just its tracks.

i like that idea! thank generations of the ol'boy scroticular network 4pre- programming the masses to pay the rockerfellers and bushs b4 the actual logical solution is implemented. Evolve Mutate Wakeup

I love traveling by train! More Americans should embrace it. I don't own a car anymore because there are so many alternatives where I live. I also commute home from College by train!!!

Good post! Traveling by train is something we need to invest into more. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars go towards a beneficial, as well as beautiful way of traveling. We need trains more than ever. Screw planes! I'm not in a rush, nor do I care for the hassles of customs.

I hope they go through with the proposed bullet train in California.

If we adopt the use of more trains and mass transit, the U.S. could join the rest of the world and the 20th century.

I use the train all the time. We need to invest in it once again. I think we lost the appreciation for the lands' vistas when we started stopping at gas pumps instead of unknown towns.

Did you know that funding for rails and public transportation ended so that we could build expressways and airports.

Food for thought

noneofthisisnew.com

I definitely agree with this post, and also i second the point made by others that there should be more railways for public transportation.

Like in Europe they have high speed trains which transport people all over the continent, whereas here in our country even with the presence of trains we seem to have no alternatives other than using Cars or Airplanes for transportation.

I guess its all about advertisements mostly, or the governments just busy looking for CLEANER fuel (which is not bad at all) when they could significantly help the country's economy by proposing new sets of transportation ideas for citizens of U.S.

I always thought the train was a good idea. Because it can move shit loads of people really far really fast, and in an environmentally friendly way.

Give the trains electric motors, and generate the electricity from solar panels or/and windmills!

I've been saying this to people for about a year now (don't know what it's been doing exactly, but meh). Long distance, overland travel, whether freight or private citizenry, belongs on the tracks.

I think the government fears starting up using rrailroads again because when it started as a large booming industry monopolies were present...

i love the train.

They need to build one of those bullit trains from houston to dallas. That would save millions of gallons of gas.

The railroad industry has been quietly pointing this out for over a decade. The logic is sound, the benefits are as easy to predict as queenofit so eloquently posted already.

I would guess that due to the plain fact that it would alleviate oil usage is exactly why it has been kept quiet- the oil lobbyists where getting more attention than the RR lobbyists- imagine that with the administration we have had over the last 8 years.

I'd love to see more passenger trains where I live. Unfortunately, trams only run in the city and come nowhere near the suburbs, where I honestly think they're needed more.

I don't know much about this, but I have wondered why we don't use Railroads for more of our hauling.

Reading the story it says: "Hamberger goes on to note that "if just 10% of the freight currently moving by truck went instead by rail, the nation could save one billion gallons of fuel by year."

That seems like it would be worth looking into, until one looks at the huge economy that the Trucking Industry has become. Then one thinks of "lobbyist" and then other unknown connections. I have wondered if that may be the real reasons why we haven't done this??

There are so many positives to using RR; for example, the traffic on the interstate highways would be reduced immeasurable, the roads would not be so damaged by heavy trucks, and it just seems safer. Gotta be more to this.....

Someone who knows more than I do, may be able to enlighten me?

i've been saying this is the answer for the last couple of years. unfortunately, only my dad agrees with me.

Railroads changed the country in the 19th century, now they could help change it again in the 21st century. Great post, thanks.

great post