If there is anything that can be learned from this today is that there are more trucks on our highways then what the roads were designed to handle even for an advanced road as the NJ Turnpike. We have been through this argument several times on this site and how we complain about prices, but yet we take the most expensive method to transport goods and that’s with truckers. We also had the argument that 30 to 40 years ago most of our freight was handled through rail, and now today only 20% of our freight is handled with rail.
When President Eisenhower introduced the interstate highway system in the 50’s the whole concept of it was for automobile travel, not for transporting goods across the country. Now another poster by the name of SteveO asked in a previous topic as to why they would go the more expensive route. Well that’s because of our Federal Government once again messing with free markets. Yes our government uses our taxpayer dollars to fund the trucking industry. If the government would stop the gravy train and allow the free market to take place, we would see the return of more freight rail, and since there would be less demand to refine diesel that crude could be refined into more gasoline which would mean cheaper costs at the pump.
It only makes sense to utilize rail once again. You don’t have to repave it, and the only upkeep you need to do is replace railroad ties from time to time, and if you really wanted to do it right start using concrete ties instead of wooden onces and you will not have to touch that rail line for the next 40 years at least. Plus if you factor in all the lines being electric down the road, we as a nation have the largest resource of coal in the world, and we would not need one drop of crude from these terrorists that pretend to be our friends. Todays advancements in clean coal technology could create coal fired plants that would produce a tenth of the pollution compared to 50 years ago. You want to see the prices for food, gasoline, and other consumer goods drop? Then lets get the government out of the way of providing welfare to failing industries and let the free market do its work.
Source: http://www.wnbc.com/news/15762598/detail.html