We also give massive tax breaks to corporations that then don’t do the things for which the breaks were given — e.g. Foxconn in WI. Build a chip plant? Nah we’re good.
Reminder that the US Congress gave AT&T and Verizon BILLIONS of dollars to build out a national broadband network decades ago. They pocketed that money and didn’t lay a single meter foot of fiber with zero consequences.
Wait till you hear about how much money the US (and Canada) spent to bail out private railroads. The same railroads that are openly hostile to running nationalized passenger rail. Even being allowed to have passenger train wheels touch their tracks is like pulling teeth so we can forget about actual, functional intercity rail like they have in the developed world.
We have plenty of traffic on the Trans Canada Highway between cities that could be diverted away from car travel. Intercity bus service as well. The prairies is especially good for high speed rail because you can build perfectly straight tracks at ground level for long distances since it’s mostly farmland, and there are aready many straight trunk roads they can share corridor with, which could potentially start competing with planes if they go at the higher end speeds that already exist in the industry, and downtown to downtown. Bombardier even made high speed trains before we lost them. And certainly more environmentally friendly than planes and cars.
The prairies aren’t actually like that. They seem like that if you’re driving through on the trans canada, which, you’re right, would be a good high speed rail corridor if you had the market.
That is clearly not true.
We also give massive tax breaks to corporations that then don’t do the things for which the breaks were given — e.g. Foxconn in WI. Build a chip plant? Nah we’re good.
Reminder that the US Congress gave AT&T and Verizon BILLIONS of dollars to build out a national broadband network decades ago. They pocketed that money and didn’t lay a single
meterfoot of fiber with zero consequences.Billions of taxpayer money gone to AT&T and Verizon? Sounds like their infrastructure should be seized and nationalized.
Wait till you hear about how much money the US (and Canada) spent to bail out private railroads. The same railroads that are openly hostile to running nationalized passenger rail. Even being allowed to have passenger train wheels touch their tracks is like pulling teeth so we can forget about actual, functional intercity rail like they have in the developed world.
In a lot of cases I don’t think you’d want passenger cars on those rails…
We have plenty of traffic on the Trans Canada Highway between cities that could be diverted away from car travel. Intercity bus service as well. The prairies is especially good for high speed rail because you can build perfectly straight tracks at ground level for long distances since it’s mostly farmland, and there are aready many straight trunk roads they can share corridor with, which could potentially start competing with planes if they go at the higher end speeds that already exist in the industry, and downtown to downtown. Bombardier even made high speed trains before we lost them. And certainly more environmentally friendly than planes and cars.
The prairies aren’t actually like that. They seem like that if you’re driving through on the trans canada, which, you’re right, would be a good high speed rail corridor if you had the market.
They did, though. I have fiber in my middle of nowhere camp because of the NBP. And I don’t even have a fiber option in the city where I live.
Consequences for not fulfilling our end of the deal? Nah, we’re good there too.