LOOKING AHEAD WITHOUT HOPE

One of my staples is the complaint about not living long enough to see what wonderful things are going to happen in the next 20 years. "Looking Ahead" has chronological limits. No one lives forever, but as a cousin of mine always says: "I'm going to be the first."

So it is with a combination of exultation and regret that I read about the opportunity that lies ahead in the creation of new "people-mover" systems. The writer, quoting Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall (from the 70s) wrote about how we can truly "rescue" the car makers - rescue them from themselves that is.

It has been one of my chronic beefs that when we talk about infrastructure or capital spending or job creation, we usually talk about the infrastructure we already know, highways, bridges etc.

In this blog just a week or so ago I summoned the President-0elect to think about real "change." Partner with the car companies in new technologies to build high speed trains and local transit. Partner with the struggling airlines to put them in the new age of transportation by building train stations at airports. Partner with the trucking companies to get them using "intermodal" transport - i.e. the placing of long-haul trailers on flat bed rail cars.

I read with delight that several states have voted for propositions that make sense. In California the voters have authorized the government to build a high speed "jet train?" to travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

I want to take a page from the innovation of the Interstate Highways system put in place by President Eisenhower. He did not simply widen existing roads, which only adds to sprawl and congestion. He built new roads over virgin territory. Unfortunately, it became what is known as the "paving of American," and included slashing cities in half with interstate routes.

But the new rail system, the building of which will supply millions of jobs, and add a new dimension to the failing car business, will go through virgin territory, or as the recent article said, down the media strips of existing interstate highways.

I know that Mr. Harper, who believes in less government, (?) doesn't think we should run a deficit. But now that the G20 has somehow given licence to him, and other countries, to run a deficit in order for the world economy to survive, maybe he will take dramatic action.

The talk about a high speed train between Windsor and Quebec drones on. It is unimaginative. It uses the existing right-of-way.

My suggestion is that we build a completely new system that links Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal in a high speed triangle.

Anyway, I probably won't be here to see it happen - or not happen - as the case will probably be.