Thoughts for today
I am on my way to New York so I hope you will forgive the US slant on this piece.
For the economic background on why the Gateway and the port expansion is so wrong headed you could do no better than to read this longish summary of dreadful economic news around the world this piece from the Alternet.
It is seriously proposed that truck congestion on the I85 freeway in Virginia could be reduced by the state investing in the railway – something that up to now the railways have resisted since they fear being dragged back to running passenger trains. But with investors being leery of putting money in anything right now even state investment looks attractive. I wish that could now find the story again I was going to link to when I started writing this yesterday, but even Google is not helping much today
The story about freight rail as an alternative to long distance trucking may be found at:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/119359/?page=entire
Article: Let’s Get Get Those Freight Trucks Off the Road and Put America Back on Tracks
By Philip Longman, Washington Monthly. Posted January 13, 2009.
Graeme
February 27, 2009 at 8:03 pm