SGC 2020 Iron Factory Reveals

Why\'s everyone talking about trains?

Train dorks

TM2 Dinobot

The trans-continental railway was a waste of time and money. It was decades before it broke even. It was more of a political gambit and publicity stunt than anything else. No one asked for it, no one wanted it. But they got it anyway. And heir tax dollars paid for it.

Viewed in isolation, the trans continental railways was a waste of money indeed, but according to historians "The standard historical interpretation holds that the railroads were central to the development of a national market in the United States and served as a model of how to organize, finance and manage a large corporation, along with allowing growth of the American population outside of the eastern regions." The American West quickly grew because of railways. So in aggregate, the country benefited. Kinda like how companies lose money with every console sold, and they later earn it back in game sales.

This train of thought is going off-rails.

Bezuul

I can't believe I told them to stop. A day later and I'm now engrossed.

I have to admit, I've become a bit invested in it as well

Wait…is..is this how it starts? Is this how one becomes an enthusiast and connoisseur of the railways?

The hooks have dug in too deep!

Sorry for interrupting the discussion on trains…

On the topic of IF Figures I really like the Not Grimlock I think I'll keep on eye out for him

David Hingtgen

High-speed rail requires overhead electric lines on every single inch of track. The cost to do so in sparsely-populated areas (western US) is generally considered prohibitive. Amtrak works in the Northeast because the Pennsylvania RR wired it up MANY years ago, and Amtrak can take advantage of it. It'd never happen if they had to build it themselves.

If we follow that argument i.e. sparse population, the first railway lines a century or two ago wouldn't be laid. Many areas in the US used to be sparsely populated and yet they eventually developed into major areas. It's simple. Communities follow jobs, not the other way around. With a sensible industrial policy, once those electric lines have been built, you can build other things that feed off that.

And remember, Japan was bombed to smitherens. It would be too easy to pull out the pity card every day, every month, heck for the rest of your life saying that this can't be done, that can't be done. Heck, didn't we go to the moon once?

divinecomedy

I think it's more than that. Nothing works if no one demands accountability, and the ultimate freedom is ZERO accountability right?  

Oh I'm aware there are other networks, government operated, in other countries that are stunning. Japan being one of those examples where the trains are always on time to the second. Issue is USA (and I think UK) doesn't have that sort of accountability hence why our rail networks are nothing but a joke. I'd say more but I think this video covers everything I could say,

GrimLocke

Government services don’t work if you nominate and employ people who say “government services don’t work” for decades while defunding public infrastructure so you can give big, big tax cuts to big, big businesses…  

divinecomedy

I think it's more than that. Nothing works if no one demands accountability, and the ultimate freedom is ZERO accountability right?  

Yeah, I live outside DC and can say that the METRO here is a giant money wasting black hole of unaccountability. They call for more and more money while withholding FoIA requests. The expansion to the Dulles Airpoint–which was first envisioned back in the late 80s–is now endangered by substandard concrete usage; the MD expansion is mired in a bureaucratic and construction nightmare, and the shiny new headquarters in downtown DC will ironically have 4 stories of parking deck.
I'm of the belief that government services can be exceedingly beneficial; however, they have to be stringently monitored or else inevitably spiral into nigh unending depths of graft and corruption.

In other news, I love the revealed IF Alpha Trion. That might be the best bot mode of the character I have seen on a transforming figure–mainline or 3rd Party.

divinecomedy

Government operated services don't work? Tokyo Metro/Seoul Metro/Hong Kong MTR/"I can list all the metros of major cities in East Asia here" would disagree. The major lines in many East Asian cities are usually municipally owned and their record is sterling. Also high speed rail in China is government owned. But then again the issue IMHO is never about the Government vs the Private Sector.

Go travel and ask questions especially uncomfortable ones. You'll realize soon enough that most things are not about A vs B, there's usually, C, D, E, and F lurking in the background, and those are even more important than both A and B or there's interplay between all or some of them that makes the issues more nuanced.

My expectations are not high and perhaps that's part of the problem. Forget the Gold Standard, the Japanese Rail System or even the next tier: what the Taiwanese and the South Koreans have. If we can get something approaching the High Speed Rail systems in Europe, I am happy enough.

Government services don’t work if you nominate and employ people who say “government services don’t work” for decades while defunding public infrastructure so you can give big, big tax cuts to big, big businesses…