Re: Camas Prairie Railroad

["Wolfgang Schwartzenweintraub" <wolfman@turbonet.com>]

Thank you Mr. Beebe your right on the money!!!!!

 

You know I hear about this environmental degradation every I read one of these statements.  We keep pussyfooting around the issue here.  We need to form some plans with some people who would be willing to set down and develop a plan. Railroads are the most maintainence intensive critters on the planet.  I mean it cost bunches of dollars to maintain one of them.  Trucking competes with rail very well.  Rail does well when there is break bulk considerations and really only then.  I mean we talk about environmental degradation when here a few years ago south of Moscow we dynamited a geological structure to lower the water table in the area so some farmers could grow more wheat on subsidy.  Wow! that is really watching out for the environment isn't it?  Of course that was an irreversible stunt on the part of some narrow and single minded parties.  I would imagine they are still around waiting to protect the environment again.  Why and for who do we want to preserve anything.  Our native Americans tried and we Europeans messed it up then and continue to mess it up.  If we are so darned concerned about the environment why to we continue to sprawl Moscow out into the hills.  One darned cement slab at a time.  If we are going to do something we need to learn from those who have already made a mess of things. Sir you are a voice of reason in the a wilderness of indecision.  Thank you for your refreshing comments about highway "Blood Alley"(95).  I did make the comment to another party yesterday that if we continue to loose 35 or more people per year as we did in 1998, we will loose the indigenous population of Moscow by the beginning of the next century .  Well, my math is not that great but that is a few souls.  From Lewiston to the Canadian border is a highway of patch and fixit that is some of the worst that I have ever driven.  Most of the highway was lain over an old Indian trading route.  Some of the grades were done with horse and mule.  None of the initial construction was done with the benefit of hydraulics.  It is a shameful display of the lack of leadership in this government. Thank you once again Mr. Beebe for your comments.  With all due respect to all of you;

 

Wolfgang M. Schwartzenweintraub

----- Original Message -----

From: Wayne H Beebe

To: Vision 2020

Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 8:58 PM

Subject: Camas Prairie Railroad

Last night on NWPR it was announced that the CPRR will be abandoning its rail line from Lewiston to Grangeville.  The use does not justify the cost of upkeep.  When I first heard about this I thought this would be a golden opportunity for rails to trails. 

 

Some one just proposed that as an alternative to an freeway highway a light rail system might be better--myself, I would prefer a fast rail system that would connect Southern Idaho with Northern Idaho.  But this would also entail some environmental degradation in the very areas that people want to preserve--the Salmon River and Whitebird (to say nothing about the Lewiston grade).

 

Northern Idaho has continued to be cut off from its Southern half.  The current highway was not designed for the traffic it handles and the result is it is now the most dangerous highway in the region.  As much as we may want to limit progress, will happen or it will pass us by--already Swift will not allow its trucks to use highway 95. As we argue about the pros and cons of a highway expansion BSU continues to siphon educational programs from the U of I. If we want to take advantage of NAFTA we need to have a system that will allow for the most efficient movement of commerce in the area.  Why should trucks have to go around the horn through Pendleton or up into Montana to move Idaho commerce north or south?  Why do cars have to risk being run off the road by large trucks? Why are we allowing our citizens to be killed on a goat trail?

 

I am very much for the environment as anyone on this board, but I do think we have to find a balance that will provide a safe road and which will allow for the free flow of commerce while protecting the integrity of the region.