MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT ON GAS PRICES
By Dan Miller
May 27, 2008
The debilitating price of gasoline is triggering simple thoughts in my head.
OK, OK, my friends might argue simple thoughts are nothing new for me.
In my naivete, I'm free to wonder why workable and better methods for moving people and heavy cargo around our country weren't seriously pursued and implemented decades ago.
The easy answer is... gas and diesel fuel prices have been relatively cheap in this country, and we just haven't worried about such things.
But no more.
And it's likely the price of fuel will never drop significantly.
So what do we do?
Perhaps we should take a lesson from the Europeans. Maybe it's time to simply add parallel tracks along all our existing rail lines.
Think about it.
Railroad tracks connect every nook and cranny of this country -- running through cities, towns and countryside alike.
In many cases the 'rights-of-way' are already in place.
If -- years ago -- the federal government had constructed parallel tracks along the existing beds, then depots would already be rebuilt, the railroad industry would be booming, and long trains would be transporting passengers and cargo in all directions day and night.
And make no mistake, it would have to involve the federal government.
It could no more be left to private industry than we could leave our interstate highway system to the private sector.
If we undertook such a project today, the cost would be considerable.Yet the benefits of a robust railroad industry -- combined with easing the burden of filling our tanks and driving along increasingly clogged interstate highways -- would be immeasurable.
Last summer I traveled with my family on high speed trains through parts of France and Germany.It was delightful... mostly hassle-free... and relatively inexpensive.
Sure, it would involve a lot of work, money and innovation, but trains -- already a rich part of this nation's history -- could ultimately enrich our future.
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