|
Caption: ACR #1 North passenger stopped at Hawk Jct station. Despite the death of the smelter at Wawa, just down the road, and the other assorted blows handed out to the unsuspecting citizens; commerce struggles on. The excitement today, as in most fall days, is centered around the baggage car. Why? Well, if it isn't loaded up with camping equipment and canoes.....and beer, for those heading into the bush, it is loaded with what is so common to us in the South and unavailable in the North. What might that be?? CORN. Sacks and sacks of corn. Everybody seems to want corn. Corn in the Northern Camps is a delicacy. In Hawk, people anticipated the arrival of the corn like the citizens in days of old awaited the mail. :o) So this day it was 1756 and 1761 to the rescue. Once the Feds kill off this passenger service,(very soon) the favourite amongst the crowds will come by truck at probably 6 or 7 times the cost. And no way to get it to the people.
|
The U.S. figured out in the 70′s that shipping by truck caused road damage that the gas tax did not even come close to covering. The US Comptroller report entitled Excssive truck weight, an expensive burden we can no longer afford to support shows that 1 truck causes as much road damage as 9700 cars: archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf
This is why the US highway trust fund has had to be bailed out repeatedly. And one of the reasons why taxes are lower & things cost less in the US is 40% of freight moves by freight rail that pays for its own right of way: http://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0362 compared to only 13% in Canada : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Canada. Hiawatha Pete. http://northamericabyrail.info
H.P.: I’d not dispute you in a minute. However, the excessive use of fuel for trucks, the wear, the tires, the terrible destruction of the roads means nothing to a government run by the rich for the rich when it comes to greasing the palms of the biggest players in the country. And yet, this is the same government that preaches what it is doing for “GREEN”. Yeah, right.
LOL! Yes it’s a tragedy that Green has become a just marketing tool. If they were serious about being green, our Govt would be protecting the RR’s (freight & passenger)and put the taxes paid by the big class 1 RR’s into a trust fund to pay for track improvements ect on the smaller financially challenged shortlines, like has been done in the US in the past. The rich & the govt may have all money, but they are still afraid of bad publicity. They know that 1 letter = 200 votes, we just need to remind them after they are elected. And this is why, at least in the case of passenger rail, advocates & pushback from the public were able to save rail services in the past. Like the Pennsylvanian. And the Northlander during the 1st round of Conservative cuts, during the 2nd round of Liberal cuts unfortunately the same amount of public pushback never materialzed. Not everyone may agree, nor have the time/desire to fight for rail services & that’s understandable, but I firmly beleive passenger rail has at least a fighting chance or I would not be investing my own time & resources in my web page. Best Regards , Pete