I'm visiting my mother at Easter, staying in the historic wonderful Retlaw Hotel. Sitting in a hot tub. Start a conversation with another guy. He worked for Giddings & Lewis, the famous machine tool company the Wall Street Journal often uses as a bellweather sign about the outlook for industry and manufacturing.
So I ask him how long it would take a factory to switch from making cars or car parts to making trains or train parts. He says 3 months !
Want to save auto jobs? The government should/could be buying train cars instead of auto cars. The demand for train cars is huge, with train ridership at record levels, trains so crowded people have to stand. The demand for auto cars is in decline.
Photo: Me and Julie shopping for a Ford.
In 1942 the Big 3 re-tooled from automobiles to armaments; at an even faster pace than Roosevelt had demanded. Yes, they can.
Posted by: Harold Jarche | April 28, 2009 at 06:44 AM
No doubt that train cars are needed, but these days few passenger trains run through rural America. So we're going to need engines as well. In the urban areas, the length of the train platform can dictate how much of a train can fit, so just adding a bunch of new cars is problematic unless you put on new engines, crews and schedules.
Posted by: Dr. Rick Wetherill | April 28, 2009 at 05:09 PM
light rail and mixed-use development to make urban areas more dense AND livable is a good plan - then to reach out to rural areas or people needing car access we consider interesting programs like the zipcar.com - a subscription car service - you reserve a car in your area for use, pick-up, use, drop-off - they take care of maintenance and upkeep! you use it only when you need it!
Posted by: kassia | May 19, 2009 at 05:12 PM