Your right i don't , i think outside the box. I'm part of a growing movement of Modern Rail Fanners , Rail planners ,and your Rail Employees who want Change. Our system is the laughing stock of the entire planet , part of the problem is politicians but the other problem is the older employees who don't want change and fight it. The older Employees are just as bad as some of the Anti-Rail politicians....
"Thinking outside the box" is a cliche, an extremely tired one. Thinking must be done within the box defined as the possible. Thinking must also be done understanding many complicated and detailed things that may not be obvious. John Mica is, and has always been, anti-rail. I am automatically wary of any idea he has concerning changes to the system, since I tend to assume his intentions are not benign to the overall system.
Well said, GML.
Have had some very interesting discussions concerning ways of doing things and what should be done, and am finding that it is the old guys that are more likely to be willing to give something new and different a shot. Also, it tends to be the old guys that recognize the likelyhood that the current latest and best and gone as far as we can go with something is truly as good as it gets is most likely wrong. Why? Because we have seen latest and best change several times over the years. Also, we been around the block a few times and have learned that ideas that deny the basic laws of physics and economics won't work no matter how good they sound, and have also seen the "revealed wisdom" on quite a few things proven false. Also, because a lot of know that new, shiney, and promoted as the greatest and best idea to ever come down the road does not make it so.
It is also worth noting that the phrase, "those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is very true in all areas. Bad ideas in the railroad world seem to have a cycle of between 30 and 40 years. Why? Because the people that got burned by them in their previous incarnation have retired and the younger guys don't know what is about to happen.
Having said that, it is also very important to know why something was a failure. It could be a problem in detail, not in concept. If so, that may be fixable. If it is a problem in concept, regardless of how good it looks, walk away.
Some problems are much more complex than they appear. Some problems are much simpler than they appear. It takes a certain amount of wisdom to know which is which.
When the Japanese opened their first Shinkansen line in 1964, the revealed wisdom was that a speed on rails in the range of about 110 to 130 mph was about as fast as it was practical to run. That is why they originally designed for about 210 km/h. That was regarded as "pushing the envelope" at that time. At this point, 220 mph is not truly pushing the envelope of the reasonably possible.
I am totally unimpressed with the current with the current panic on "global warming" Why? Because 40 years ago the panic was "global cooling" including such dire predictions as massive extinctions and a drop in average temperature by the turn of the century, that being the year 2000, folks, the average temperature on this planet would drop 11 degrees F. Did not happen. Why should we expect the current run of predictions, many from the same organizations, to be any more accurate?
Yes, we should reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, yes we should be looking toward geothermal and other
practical alternative energy sources, but not because the plant is heating up but because the easy and cheap to get oil and gas is gone and for much of it we are sending massive amounts of money to the most irratonal and repressive governments on this plant to get the fuel we use.
As it is, if the reason being used to justify reduced fuel usage is discredited, it will in the minds of many also indicate that there is not need to be concerned about fuel consumption.