Garl B. Latham - All Comments

re: Bravo!

oamundsen — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:19:06 GMT

Good to see your views once again, Garl and, as usual, I agree wholeheartedly with you and Larry. I just returned from an Amtrak trip: Syracuse/Chicago/Denver,( quickie Denver/San Francisco), Denver/Chicago/Syracuse with all trains on time or early, reasonable food & great sleeping along with astonishing landscapes. We in the US have magnificent resources for efficient, comfortable alternative travel and most of it is not being tapped because we do not have a rational national surface transportation plan. Someone I spoke with on the trip mentioned that 75% of the US adult population do not own cars & yet virtually all pay taxes. This presents a wonderful "no taxation without representation" argument when it comes to the massive subsidy provided to highways without proportionate subsidy for passenger & freight rail. I always appreciate Larry's reality therapy words which caution me to not get carried away with unbounded enthusiasm, but, I am hopeful that the GOP has finally reached a point of absurdity and we will see a resurgence of good, honest differences in points of view being rationally discussed in a civil manner. Only then can a rational national transportation plan be even possible. Thank you both.

re: Bravo!

Larry Kaufman — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:54:28 GMT

I am familiar with the Moynihan version, and happily admit to having cribbed it on numerous occasions. If you're going to steal, steal from the very best. That last sentence might be a cleaned up version of the Willy Sutton response to "Why did you rob the bank, Willy?

re: Bravo!

Garl B. Latham — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:11:14 GMT

When I began writing this entry, I struggled with the leading quotation.

Barnard Mannes Baruch served as its point of origin, so he ultimately received the nod.

Even so, I really like the way another statesman revised it - making the aphorism more uniform in construction and, in my opinion, poetic.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

re: Bravo!

Larry Kaufman — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:44:04 GMT

Garl: My sincere appreciation for your kind words. You and I both know you went further than I did, and the only reason I didn't was simply the word-count limitation that publishers impose on the deathless prose of their writers. For the record, I wouldn't change a word of my Railway Age blog and even if you were the only reader who understood and appreciated my effort, I consider to have been successful. Again, many thanks.

re: My two favourite statistics

Larry Kaufman — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:14:04 GMT

anmccaff: You may be correct, but my point still is that transportation/infrastructure never has been a partisan issue. The idiots who cannot get a highway bill renewal passed after nearly three years are making it a partisan issue. Systemsnut has a right to any opinion he wishes. He does not have a right to base it on his very own facts to which others do not subscribe.

re: My two favourite statistics

anmccaff — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:08:49 GMT

Party politics aside, Larry, he has a point. Collective solutions generally only work efficiently and effectively when they are genuinely shared. The "Sewer Socialists" and the Progressive (Republican)s managed to do some good work, some of it on transportation, in the Midwest, but that was because everyone saw streetlights and sewers as a genuine public good.

As long as so much of, roughly, the Democratic Party, makes so much of their immediate advantages from HSR -jobs which they can claim as coming from their efforts - and so little of quantifiable benefit to the public at large, support is going to split right along party lines.

re: My two favourite statistics

Larry Kaufman — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:13:38 GMT

Are you through with your latest political rant, Systemsnut?

re: My two favourite statistics

Systemsnut — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:07:53 GMT

Yeah, great, we can all become socialists and have the same two class system they have in Europe. No one will be able to afford a car, so we better get those HSRs built on the taxpayer's backs.

re: The importance of being connected (Grid and Gateway, part 5)

Larry Kaufman — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:09:14 GMT

Your definition seems just fine, Bruce. You don't need any help from me.

re: The importance of being connected (Grid and Gateway, part 5)

BruceMcF — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:43:19 GMT

As I understand it, this series is about "the individual routes which criss-cross the continent (the grid) and the points at which those lines intersect (the gateways)."

So the term as used is not limited to gateways between different RAILWAYS, but rather gateways between different ROUTES.

And for multi-modal freight, the routes could well be different modes, so the CSX gateway in NW Ohio south of Toledo would be a "gateway", whether or not the intersection of a N/S and E/W route there sees any freight turning the corner there.

re: A world of VIAs

rjsillars — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 19:21:15 GMT

How very sensible! Do it VIA.

re: The importance of being connected (Grid and Gateway, part 5)

Larry Kaufman — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 16:22:42 GMT

I don't know whether this answer will be to the satisfaction of BruceMcF, but I'm also certain that others may well have different thoughts. The national rail system now has four principal gateways between east and west. They are Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, aned New Orleans. All of the four major Cloass 1 railroads meet at those four locations. There are some other "gateways," but for the most part they are only places where two east-west railroads meet. By definition, I don't consider the latter to be "gateways." Nor do I consider any locations to be gateways for north-south movement through the system, for the very simple reason that each of the four principal systems today operate from the Canadian to Mexican borders. The need for north-south gateways, never all that significant, was ended when Conrail was acquired and divided between CSX and NS, eliminating the need for any gateway. Note, I comment only in terms of moving freight, not passengers, although the physical reason for having gateways applies to both. So, BruceMcF, I don't think there are 10 most important gateways in the U.S. Four, yes, ten, no. Anyone else got any thoughts on this one?

re: The importance of being connected (Grid and Gateway, part 5)

BruceMcF — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 21:40:10 GMT

On a national scale, what would be the top 10 most important Gateways?

re: My two favourite statistics

RAILWAYIST — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 04:55:02 GMT

Cause Garl is a 'Right Honourable Gentleman' with a big following within British Railway circles.

HRH Charles, Prince of Wales will soon be certified as a High-Speed Locomotive Driver.

A Royal Railway Tour of North America is in the works for 2013 as a way to help promote rail travel.

re: A world of VIAs

oamundsen — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:32:14 GMT

Garl, somewhere a while ago, I read that the big problem with the SP station currently used by Amtrak is a short piece of rail which did exist but was torn out consequently making all that slow maneuvering by the Sunset/Texas Eagle necessary. The fix was a relatively cheap restoration of under a quarter mile of track to make things work and cut about half an hour off the toing & froing now needed. I have no idea if this is true but given what you describe above, it would seem that common sense does not prevail in San Antonio. By the way, it is a lovely place to visit just before Christmas, especially when you arrive from the north by train!