People are driving less. Trucking companies are putting long-distance trailers onto piggyback trains. Which means that because fuel sales are dropping off, the highway funds for repair and maintenance will take a hit. Mass transit usage is soaring.
And those smart guys who bought toll road franchises might not be doing so well.
We may be in a game-changing time. If gas stays high, let alone climbs higher, the day of people driving several hundred miles for routine trips may be over. At $200/barrel for crude oil, expect serious cutbacks in the airline industry and look for prices to climb back to where they were (adjusted for inflation) before deregulation. On the other hand, as fewer people fly, the airlines will have no choice but to try and sell good service again.
Those who bought homes 80 and 90 miles away from their places of work are going to be seriously screwed, if they not already are, as they may be upside-down on their mortgages with no prospect in the near term for that to change.
We may end up cursing those who ripped up the old railroad network. It would not surprise me greatly if one of the side effects is a resurgence in rail and bus travel, as both are very fuel efficient.
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The biggest problem we have with Caltrain here in the SF Bay area is that it's *too* popular. They are maxxed out -- every trainset is fully utilized every day and they only have three spare cars in the whole system -- yet cannot get any money from the state or local government to buy more trainsets.
What's really going to be interesting is what happens with the U.S. Mail. What killed the old private passenger service was when the U.S. Mail quit shipping mail via train and instead started putting it onto trucks. Shortly that is going to look like a very, very unwise decision...
- Badtux the Train Penguin
I figure it'll balance out eventually.
The US dollar is worth less than the Canadian.
Oil is high.
Gold is high.
US car manufactuers are starting to build smaller cars to compete with the Japanese (Ford announced they're bringing back the Festiva)
Sounds like the mid to late 70's to me.
"And those smart guys who bought toll road franchises might not be doing so well."
Let me help you stuff a lit road flare up their asses from ten feet away.
Motherfuckers.
I got your Republican Infrastructure Buying Frenzy in my left hand.
Justin, we could re-elect Jimmy Carter... :)
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