Lurking in the back of my head when I wrote about the history of American rail was the conventional wisdom that European (and Asian) passenger railways are so much more effective (fill in effusive adjective) than the US. High speed rail is a corollary to this. Why can't we pull it off here? I live in California and know the boondoggle that is the LA<->SF high speed rail project.
I don't think it'll ever happen here and I'm no longer convinced that's necessarily bad. Maybe the boring company will disrupt the whole idea. Or maybe something entirely different.
Canada's main railroad, the CPR, was built around the same time as the American transcontinental railroads, using the same kind of methods and the same kind of ethnic workers. It had a Last Spike ceremony at Craigellachie, Alberta, with the spike being driven by Donald Smith (a.k.a. Lord Strathcona), one of the businessmen who had provide necessary funding for the project.
tx for the link brother Andrew! Something I learned when I wrote that piece was the telegraph expanded lock step with the railroads. Every line used the same right-of-way and construction to string telegraph wires. Just like today power poles carry telephone wires (now pretty much all repurposed for internet/dsl/fiber/cable).
I wonder what other parallel/complimentary infrastructures are being built out along with this massive AI infrastructure lift. New power and distribution systems for sure.
We need to do that again with high speed rails.
Lurking in the back of my head when I wrote about the history of American rail was the conventional wisdom that European (and Asian) passenger railways are so much more effective (fill in effusive adjective) than the US. High speed rail is a corollary to this. Why can't we pull it off here? I live in California and know the boondoggle that is the LA<->SF high speed rail project.
I don't think it'll ever happen here and I'm no longer convinced that's necessarily bad. Maybe the boring company will disrupt the whole idea. Or maybe something entirely different.
It blows me away that we can’t seem to get our act together on that. We did it then, we did it with the Freeway system. Why can’t we just do it now?
My guess is that there is really no business imperative to git-er-done
Yeah, and it was possible to have a really high marginal tax rate. I don't think that flies today either.
i really want a speed train between Richmond and NYC. Also, between RVA and where my folks live down south. Is that too much to ask?
Canada's main railroad, the CPR, was built around the same time as the American transcontinental railroads, using the same kind of methods and the same kind of ethnic workers. It had a Last Spike ceremony at Craigellachie, Alberta, with the spike being driven by Donald Smith (a.k.a. Lord Strathcona), one of the businessmen who had provide necessary funding for the project.
Did Lord Strathcona miss? Leland Stanford took the first whack down here and I don't think he was used to swinging a hammer.
Yeah, it took him more than one try. It had been a long time in his life since he had done anything similar to driving rails.
Ha! Let's travel back in time and show those 19th century dummies how to hammer some spikes!
Sputnik might very well fit the bill
Good call! Lots of underlying tech had to be ready all at once, and it was definitely intended as a beacon to the world. Good example.
tx for the link brother Andrew! Something I learned when I wrote that piece was the telegraph expanded lock step with the railroads. Every line used the same right-of-way and construction to string telegraph wires. Just like today power poles carry telephone wires (now pretty much all repurposed for internet/dsl/fiber/cable).
I wonder what other parallel/complimentary infrastructures are being built out along with this massive AI infrastructure lift. New power and distribution systems for sure.
Man, that's a good one - and another reason I like the telecom revolution parallels. Let's keep thinking about this one. It's big 'un.