3 ms·

Maybe we should spend the r&d money on r&d for how to improve regulatory approvals.

CuriousCosmic 3y ago
Reducing the difficulty of a railroad to regulatory approval (what the comment you replied to does) is really oversimplifying it. The main barrier to building modern rail (i.e. high speed rail) is property owners. Nobody wants to be forced to sell off part of their property to the state to add noise pollution to their property. So everyone fights it tooth and nail. That's of course a problem and it happens with roads as well but it's standard practice to just eminent domain property for roads if people won't sell. The state will not do this for railroads though. So a railroad project may end up blocked for 20 years because they don't own a 1 mile stretch of land 20 feet wide but with a new highway extension they'll just eminent domain your half your property and bulldose your home after 5 years of negotiating to add a few lanes to an existing road. This is not to say that eminent domain is a good thing but rather that it's a lot more naunced than "regulators won't rubberstamp the project"
renewiltord 3y ago
It's not government. It's your fellow men. Today you will say things like this but if I show you one picture of a grandma on the route you will stop. So let's just forestall the pretence that we want things and just reference it as a Grandma Stop. Remember this widely held viewpoint: > My mother is not expendable. Your mother is not expendable. We're not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable. And we're not going to put a dollar figure on human life Another short lemma is that having someone leave somewhere they've lived over 10 y is equivalent to violence and we arrive at the proof that grandmas and mothers in the vicinity of anything should stop that thing. The moon's big advantage is that it lacks women of any sort. Certainly there are no mothers or grandmothers there, so building engineering projects there is possible.
ein0p 3y ago
What “regulatory approvals” are needed to improve and maintain _existing_ railroads such that trains don’t fly off the rails daily?
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > What “regulatory approvals” are needed to improve and maintain _existing_ railroads Environmental reviews and construction permits.
- throwaway11460 3y ago
  You can't just upgrade existing to high speed rail. Turning radius is way too small, and noise levels much higher, and you usually need at least two tracks.
JohnFen 3y ago
Regulatory approvals are difficult because the regulations are trying to accomplish a very, very difficult goal: balancing a ton of competing interests. I'd prefer that real efforts for such balancing happens even when it adds additional friction and expense because the alternative is significantly worse.

Reducing the difficulty of a railroad to regulatory approval (what the comment you replied to does) is really oversimplifying it. The main barrier to building modern rail (i.e. high speed rail) is property owners. Nobody wants to be forced to sell off part of their property to the state to add noise pollution to their property. So everyone fights it tooth and nail. That's of course a problem and it happens with roads as well but it's standard practice to just eminent domain property for roads if people won't sell. The state will not do this for railroads though. So a railroad project may end up blocked for 20 years because they don't own a 1 mile stretch of land 20 feet wide but with a new highway extension they'll just eminent domain your half your property and bulldose your home after 5 years of negotiating to add a few lanes to an existing road. This is not to say that eminent domain is a good thing but rather that it's a lot more naunced than "regulators won't rubberstamp the project"

renewiltord 3y ago

It's not government. It's your fellow men. Today you will say things like this but if I show you one picture of a grandma on the route you will stop. So let's just forestall the pretence that we want things and just reference it as a Grandma Stop. Remember this widely held viewpoint: > My mother is not expendable. Your mother is not expendable. We're not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable. And we're not going to put a dollar figure on human life Another short lemma is that having someone leave somewhere they've lived over 10 y is equivalent to violence and we arrive at the proof that grandmas and mothers in the vicinity of anything should stop that thing. The moon's big advantage is that it lacks women of any sort. Certainly there are no mothers or grandmothers there, so building engineering projects there is possible.

ein0p 3y ago

What “regulatory approvals” are needed to improve and maintain _existing_ railroads such that trains don’t fly off the rails daily?

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> What “regulatory approvals” are needed to improve and maintain _existing_ railroads Environmental reviews and construction permits.
throwaway11460 3y ago
You can't just upgrade existing to high speed rail. Turning radius is way too small, and noise levels much higher, and you usually need at least two tracks.

JohnFen 3y ago

Regulatory approvals are difficult because the regulations are trying to accomplish a very, very difficult goal: balancing a ton of competing interests. I'd prefer that real efforts for such balancing happens even when it adds additional friction and expense because the alternative is significantly worse.