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  • Politics and State Operated Railroads

  • General discussion about the RAILROAD.NET site, forums, or content ONLY. Please do not post your general railroading questions, please choose an appropriate forum. For help using the site, please post in the Help Using RAILROAD.NET Forum.
General discussion about the RAILROAD.NET site, forums, or content ONLY. Please do not post your general railroading questions, please choose an appropriate forum. For help using the site, please post in the Help Using RAILROAD.NET Forum.

Moderator: Jeff Smith

 #856399  by Tommy Meehan
 
Keeping politics out of discussions about publicly-financed projects for state-owned and operated commuter agencies...great idea only how do you do it?

I'm referring to the recently locked threads in the NJ Transit Rail Forum on the ARC tunnel project. The discussion got too political, I agree. But when a Governor with budget problems suspends and may possibly cancel the biggest rail project since the Center City Tunnel, one of the most important rail projects...ever?.... because of issues raised by the Federal Transit Administration, how do you discuss the twists and turns it's taking without getting into the politics of it?

We're left with the fact we have a project to add two Hudson River rail tunnels and a new Manhattan rail terminal and we can't discuss it on Railroad.Net.

I'm not angry about it but I was hugely enjoying the discussion and am very disappointed they got locked.
 #856757  by Otto Vondrak
 
I am disappointed when the conversation turns to politics, too. They have no place here.

Please email me or PM me if you have further questions.

-otto-
 #861468  by jaystreetcrr
 
I respect the moderators and the job they do and I doubt this will change anything but I question the ban on "politics". Railroads are inherently political and we are at a big moment in regard to government funding and passenger trains, so why avoid the topic as long as the discussion stays civil?
If Mr. Lincoln were proposing some crazy notion about starting a transcontinental railroad in the middle of a bloody civil war, would we not want to talk about it via telegraph? Railroads run through the core of American politics! Manifest Destiny and the war on native peoples, land grants and the Credit Mobilier, labor struggles, robber barons, corporate personhood (Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific), Jim Crow (Plessy v. Ferguson), the USRA, Amtrak, Conrail, etc. etc.
Delete the obnoxious and uncivil, but please allow some political discussion.
 #861483  by scottychaos
 
jaystreetcrr wrote:Delete the obnoxious and uncivil, but please allow some political discussion.
You seem to believe its actually possible to have political discussion that is NOT obnoxious and uncivil! ;)
unfortunately this is America in 2010..I honestly dont think that is possible anymore. :(

Scot
 #861526  by Noel Weaver
 
One thing we can all do whether we are an "D" or an "R" or whatever, STUDY the positions of the various candidates for public office in your area. Do they favor Amtrak? Do they favor public transit by rail or by bus or do they not favor public transit at all? Do not be afraid to question their web sites for an answer. Study their remarks when speaking.
Some candidates have been very vocal in their opposition to rail transit, it is not too hard to find out who these individuals are both on here and elsewhere.
How important is passenger rail and railroading in general to you? Study and listen then vote accordingly?
Noel Weaver
 #861557  by Otto Vondrak
 
jaystreetcrr wrote:I respect the moderators and the job they do and I doubt this will change anything but I question the ban on "politics". Railroads are inherently political and we are at a big moment in regard to government funding and passenger trains, so why avoid the topic as long as the discussion stays civil?
If Mr. Lincoln were proposing some crazy notion about starting a transcontinental railroad in the middle of a bloody civil war, would we not want to talk about it via telegraph? Railroads run through the core of American politics! Manifest Destiny and the war on native peoples, land grants and the Credit Mobilier, labor struggles, robber barons, corporate personhood (Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific), Jim Crow (Plessy v. Ferguson), the USRA, Amtrak, Conrail, etc. etc.
Delete the obnoxious and uncivil, but please allow some political discussion.
With all due respect to Mr. Lincoln, I fail to see what that has to do with the operations of RAILROAD.NET. There are some members of this site who have demonstrated over and over that they are incapable of separating a railroad discussion from their personal politics. What's more, many members seem to think that we are concerned with their personal political opinions, further poisonig the well. We are here to share and discuss our common interest in trains and railroading, not to vent our complaints about politicians, no matter how tangentially related to railroading.

Talk about the merits of the Transcontinental Railroad all you want. But I dont care what your opinion of Abraham Lincoln is. I also dont care what you think of his policies. They have nothing to do with railroading.

Conrail, Amtrak, the USRA, the Staggers Act, etc are all valid topics of conversation and have not been restricted in any way.


-otto-