Recent content by JxGx78

NBC 13 in Birmingham had a story about the Crescent tonight on their website. While not a great story it gives Amtrak some attention in a state it normally doesn't receive much thought. My guess is the Amtrak station is only temporally closed, but I don't know for sure.

Congress held hearings today into the run-up in crude oil, Michael Masters (a portfolio manager) give some very interesting testimony where he blamed some, not all, of the run-up in crude oil on 'Index Speculators'. CNBC covered the story today, and here is a link to the testimony if anyone is...

You're right sorry to go so far off topic. The best way I've have yet heard of to fix externalities is a carbon tax, it can be done is such a way that it could replace payroll taxes. Holisticpolitics.org has a great section on global warming and talks about a carbon tax in great detail, and...

I think the big picture of the train on CNN's travel main page is great free publicity Edit: It is made even better since they have "Flying tips for cranky passengers" on the same page

Yea, I have to disagree as well. I spent 6 years as an Armor Officer with 3rd ID, and while rail heading tanks and Bradley's makes the most sense, shipping whole units would be difficult. A Heavy Bridge Combat Team is between 3000 an 4000 Soldiers, so moving the unit in mass by train is...

I don't know much about rail ties (like anything), just saw this thread, thought the topic was interesting, and looked it up on wikipedia. The composites sounded kind of cool, but wikipedia had very little information on them. I noticed no one here had mentioned composites just timber and...

Reason has been very vocal about the need to end subsidies (or at least reform the process) to highways (warning they do make another swipe at Amtrak). Personally, I believe that if highways and airline subsidies were reformed Amtrak could become self-sufficient. Since such reforms are...

England appears to have a relatively successful volunteer railroad. This is from the January issue of the Freeman. The story is interesting and well worth the read. Edit: I should have added that the idea of volunteers working to improve a railway (specifically Amtrak) might work. and

Wikipedia has a section on rubber composite railroad ties, its seems that these offer a good cross between upkeep and installation. Does anyone know if Amtrak has any plans to use rubber composite ties?

Not trying to dwell on this, but since you claimed to understand Kelo vs New London what you just described is not unconstitutional, at least not under the federal constitution, states will vary of course. The court ruled in Kelo vs New London that land can be seized for redevelopment...

@ Kramerica: Terrible might have been to strong a word to describe gas taxes, bad or less than good would have been better. Prices play a central role in society and how roads are priced goes along way in determining there use and how/where roads are built. A gas tax is a user fee, but is far...

No, I completely understand the process, but we do have a philosophical difference. A market price is contingent on both sides entering into the transaction of their own free will. When I buy something at Wal-Mart it is a market transaction because both sides agree to the trade. In Eminent...

Most airlines subsides are indirect in the form of infrastructure investments where government money is used to pay for airports and airport improvements. Also, the federal government has traditionally payed for a large portion of aircraft R&D through the air force and NASA resulting in lower...

I would agree that the full price of automobile ownership is not felt by the driver, but I don't think greenhouse gases are the externality that needs to be focused on. The two biggest areas I see is charging to low of a rate for crude oil, and highway cost allocated through gas taxes and the...

@ Green Maned Lion I agree with your intentions, but completely disagree with your implementation. I'm a big laissez-faire kind of guy so that is the paradigm that I view the world through, I tend to describe myself as a left-leaning libertarian. I think if someone wants to drive a Ford...