To my rhetorical question as to why Des Moines has no passenger rail service, 
Mr. Witt replied, "Politics."  

Just so.

Here's a good article which builds on that theme.

Tom

Quotes:
"Telling people anything other than what they want to hear is political 
suicide."

"Instead of cutting gas taxes, we should raise them. Instead of building new 
highways, we should forbid them, allowing trains, transit, bicycling and 
walking to work once again."
==============================
Traffic jams are bad, but what's next could be worse


Roanoke Times, July 20, 2006
New River Journal

By Michael Abraham 
Gaso-lunacy!
It's a dreary Friday afternoon, raining. I'm in the company van headed for my 
last delivery, trying to make my way through the nightmare intersection at 
South Franklin and Cambria streets in Christiansburg. The line I'm in stretches 
so far I can't even see the red light. I begin to think of traffic and gas 
prices.
I had read an article about a Christian organization called Pray Live that 
convened a group of clergy around a Washington, D.C., gas station. In a press 
release, the group posited that many people "are overlooking the power of prayer 
when it comes to resolving this energy crisis."
Not issued was how the group concluded that the Almighty would necessarily 
support a move to make gasoline more affordable and thus spur our profligate 
consumption.
In his most recent State of the Union address, President Bush told us that we 
are "addicted to oil." In his latest maneuver for dealing with it, he 
suspended deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, thus keeping more oil on the 
open market.
The actual amount was under 1 percent; the effect would be negligible. But it 
looked like he was doing something.
The Democrats, amply displaying their typical cluelessness, offered a 
smorgasbord of blame and remedy. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid deemed price 
increases "unacceptable" and last spring announced his support for the Menendez 
Amendment, which would give drivers a 60-day vacation from the federal fuel tax. 
The primary effect of this counterproductive move would be to worsen the 
already burgeoning national debt.
This lunacy is against the backdrop of unrepentant and unrestrained gluttony. 
The new poster child for excess, Dave Givens of Mariposa, Calif., was the 
dubious winner in a contest sponsored by Midas as having the longest commute in 
the nation. He commutes 370 miles per day! While the worst of the bad, he is 
but one of millions of us driving longer commutes than ever.
The cars in front of me inch forward, indicating the light must have changed 
green. Jarred from my reverie, I parade forward but am stopped five cars away 
from the intersection to await the next sequence. Windshield wipers beat out 
rhythms like maestros at an orchestra convention. A tattooed arm emerges from 
the driver's side of a red pickup, and a hand throws out a burning cigarette, 
which joins hundreds of others on the shoulder of the road.
We live in a blame-free, guilt-free society. Prescient Jimmy Carter asked 
Americans to understand our energy situation and deal with it in a constructive 
way, but it cost him his job. Telling people anything other than what they want 
to hear is political suicide.
I'm not running for office and have nothing to lose in telling you the truth. 
If you're looking for someone who really deserves the blame, find a mirror.
The primary reason for today's prices is simply a clash between supply and 
demand. With all freely traded commodities, when investors feel that consumers 
need more than the market provides, the price rises.
Today we're seeing the first ill wind of Peak Oil, the point at which all the 
world's wells can no longer yield at the rate consumers can consume. Don't 
tell me we should be drilling the continental shelves or the Arctic National 
Wildlife Refuge, because these are our last strategic petroleum reserves. Today 
there are simply too many mouths feeding at diminishing troughs.
Only lunatics tell a society addicted to cocaine that it's the government's 
job to make cocaine affordable. Our automobile-based transportation monoculture 
and the unprecedented energy gluttony it inspired is doomed.
Either by enlightened choice or by the forces of nature it will soon be 
dramatically curbed.
Today's gasoline prices are a fraction of what they'll soon be. The only 
route to adequate supplies at reasonable prices is to diversify transportation and 
to simply need a lot less of it.
Note: A barrel of oil at $75 is equivalent to 11 cents per cup, a fraction of 
what Coca-Cola costs.
Instead of cutting gas taxes, we should raise them. Instead of building new 
highways, we should forbid them, allowing trains, transit, bicycling and 
walking to work once again.
The situation begs for reason, logic and leadership but all are painfully 
absent.
The light changes green again and I motor on, thinking to myself that when 
there's not enough gas at the pumps, rage will permeate every interstice of our 
society.
Michael Abraham grew up in Christiansburg and lives in Blacksburg. He always 
prefers two-wheeled vehicles to four.



    




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