Flutterby™! : Moving people vs moving goods

Moving people vs moving goods

2011-06-06 19:36:14.293528+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Rather than moving people more quickly, [China] should build a rail system that moves goods and makes people more productive where they already are.

(alt link, an expansion of 1, 2)

comments in descending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-07 01:44:23.410133+00 by: Dan Lyke

Hmmm... Wonder what the tons per employee ratio is in trucking vs trains...

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-07 01:06:21.267001+00 by: ebradway

Ya forgot one:

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-06 22:30:26.371444+00 by: Dan Lyke

Because we sank the costs of the railroads back in 1890, and haven't been publicly subsidizing it nearly as heavily as we have the infrastructure for trucks since.
Because trains don't go places trucks do, and the infrastructure was too costly to maintain in all of those places.
Because trucks are easily re-directable, and don't require months of forethought and planning in your supply chain management.

(Not being snarky, brainstorming about these sorts of issues is very valuable to me.)

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-06 21:25:03.650554+00 by: meuon

Forget China, the USA needs that badly. Why are so many large trucks doing long haul?