Comments on THROUGH ROSEN-COLORED GLASSES: A Modest Proposal: A Real High-Speed Rail Program...

Benjamin, I'm a reporter for the San Jose Merc...

2010-04-01T12:38:41.370-04:00

Benjamin, I'm a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News trying to reach you for a story looking at the HP-Compaq merger in retrospect. What's the best way to reach you? My email is mzapler@mercurynews.com; office is 202-662-8921. Thanks, Mike.

What is interesting in the comparison to the Chine...

2010-02-05T17:04:17.689-05:00

What is interesting in the comparison to the Chinese programs is that China is showing the boldness they learned from looking at the US history/approach especially since WWII.

With regard to energy, the new administration is trying to provide some positive movement, including the programs initiated by DoE. This is welcome compared to the previous years. However, there is not yet a vision or a set of visionary goals that will grab the attention of the public and provide major scientific and technologial initiatives by universities, research laboratories and the corporate world. Is is a cliche, but we don't have a Transcontinental rairoad or Apollo type goals. I think the underlying ingredients exist, including innovative research initiatives, but exciting, clearly articulated goals do not.

I think a regional rather than national approach t...

2010-02-04T10:41:43.135-05:00

I think a regional rather than national approach to high speed rail makes more sense for the US. China's population is almost completely concentrated within 200 miles of their coast line. That makes their challenge/opportunity comparable to the US Eastern Seaboard.

Perhaps the US government should consider having GM convert some of its excess auto plants to making electric locomotives and rail cars. Not as silly as it sounds, since GM pioneered diesel-electric locomotives almost 100 years ago when Charles Kettering created the Electomotive Division.

GM's EMD developed "hybrid" locomotives from small engines used only in switching yards to massive, cross-country, main-line locomotives. As the name implies, these engines used a diesel motor to drive an electric generator, which in turn powered electric motors at the wheels. A true hybrid!

EMD's product was vastly superior to steam locomotives, then the dominant, indeed only, technology for rail locomotives. They used less fuel, had a crew of 2 instead of 7, could go 1,000 miles between re-fuelings where stem engines had to stop to take on water every 100 miles. EMD's engines went 100,000 miles between overhauls versus less than 10,000 miles for steam engines.

To make a long story short, the diesel electric killed off the entire steam locomotive manufacturing industry, and GM was the dominant supplier of rail locomotives for decades. Later, GE enetered the business, and for a while, GM and GE had a duopoly on rail locomotives. In recent decades, GE surpassed GM as the dominant supplier.

If the Chevy Volt hybrid can the the path for GM's revival in the personal automobile business, perhaps high speed rail could be the path for the revival of another storied part of GM.