Tearing up Rail for Highways
Is this the future for Oahu? Will we one day tear up the rail we are now planning to build to replace it with a highway? Presposterous? Well, that is what they are going to do in Mississippi.
The high-octane Mississippi Senate delegation is using a mammoth bill funding hurricane relief and the war in Iraq to have taxpayers foot the $700 million bill for a rail line along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. But there’s a catch. The track in question, owned by CSX Transportation and damaged by Hurricane Katrina, has already been repaired at a cost of $300 million.
Now, Mississippi GOP Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott want to tear up the just-rebuilt track _ which divides virtually every city and town along the state’s coast _ and use the land to build a much-needed highway along the congested coastline.
It is so very easy to throw money away when it is other people’s money.
Whole story here.