The under funding of trains is criminal. Obviously the train lobby has less money for bribery of politicians than the oil lobby. Amtrak on the east coast is efficient and easy. However they don't run that frequently any more, you can't get to a lot of places, and in some sections the rails are so damn dilapidated you get a "washboard" feeling on the train. The freight carriers own the tracks. They spend as little as possible, partly because national policy favors gigantic semis careening across the landscape, hauling crap from China, burning diesel, and tearing up the highways and whatever they happen to run into.
And somewhere along the line, somebody was successful in convincing Americans this was the way it ought to be..
(I don't call it campaign finance any more. It's bribery. Baksheesh, graft, kickbacks, payola, extortion, fraud, slush funds, tribute. The good old USA has taken bribery to institutionalized levels the third world can only dream about.) |
