"BUY" Partisian Politics RANT

[gotrocks]

I admit I have not been a consistent "watch dog" of DC doins, but one thing that gripes me is the short sited bunch that was in office years ago when the railroads starting going "belly up"
I suspect the "team steers" political pull helped this to happen.
I believe the rail roads maintained their "roads" but taxpayers maintain the highways that the 18 wheelers use. Then once in a while I'll see at trailer with a sign that says "This vehicle pays $3000 tax a year" , when in fact any thinking person knows the consumer that purchases the good hauled by the truck pays the tax and tax on the tax.


I've never read a new report where the driver admitted he was going to FAST.
How much fuel would be saved?

 

[dave1949]

What is the history of the railroad's decline? Used to be lots of union issues but they eventually even got rid of cabooses. Train just ain't a real train with no caboose

Any railroad buffs out there?
Dave.

 

[mostly_gas]

Railroads lost the ability to move goods fast and reliable. The firm I worked for had too many issues with goods not showing up when promised (sheet and coil steel) and had to go truck exclusively even though it cost more. Our customer based needed us to ship our product on schedule so the shifts from rail happened. Don't know why on time delivery was such an issue for RR. The shift to truck happened in late '70's.

 

[20 20]

Then once in a while I'll see at trailer with a sign that says "This vehicle pays $3000 tax a year" , when in fact any thinking person knows the consumer that purchases the good hauled by the truck pays the tax and tax on the tax.

I was an owner operator And I had to pay the highway tax weather I made money or not.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I admit I have not been a consistent "watch dog" of DC doins, but one thing that gripes me is the short sited bunch that was in office years ago when the railroads starting going "belly up"
I suspect the "team steers" political pull helped this to happen.
I believe the rail roads maintained their "roads" but taxpayers maintain the highways that the 18 wheelers use. Then once in a while I'll see at trailer with a sign that says "This vehicle pays $3000 tax a year" , when in fact any thinking person knows the consumer that purchases the good hauled by the truck pays the tax and tax on the tax.
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I've never read a new report where the driver admitted he was going to FAST.
How much fuel would be saved?

So then by your theory you don't pay taxes either? Since your money comes from others they pay your taxes for you. :confused2:

 

[Lloyd_E]

Yup... Same thing in Canada... We have more truck traffic on our roads and in my province the roads are dismal. You would think with all the tax on fuel they would be better - not! Robing Peter to pay Paul...

In fact several years ago an American tour bus operator canned tour routes do to the state of the roads... I would have done the same. In our province, I believe 20+ years ago you could take a train from one tip to the other and could flag the train at many key stations. I took my 4.5 year old on his first train ride last weekend. This is a main line from our Capital City to Montreal, Toronto and beyond even linking with Amtrak. We had to sit on a side rail for 40 minutes to await an oncoming freight because they tore up the second rail line years ago due to decrease in transport - duh! Our capital city has one of the largest and ice free ports for containers/ships on the American east coast competing against NY, Boston etc... We see double stacked freight cars all the time... but passenger service is limited.

Although the rail run was short, it was enjoyable and the employees seemed genuine in servicing you.

Before kids, my wife and I looked into an across Canada train ride. This was 9+ years ago and the cost, one way, was over $6500. - ouch. Return via air would have added to the cost. In fact, it is cheaper to fly to Europe from here than it is to travel to our west coast. Go figure...