It’s been a pretty boring day. Not much going on, really. Just some storms rolling through. But I wanted to end the evening with a few thoughts on the prospect of high speed rail in America, specifically in the state of Oklahoma.
For those of you who don’t know, I was born in Oklahoma and lived there on and half for my entire life. Total, I figured up that I spent roughly half my life in the state, although I consider Arkansas to be my home (this is where I spent my formidable years). But one reason why I have never considered Oklahoma home and never will consider moving back there is how narrow-minded and ignorant the people are.
State officials have been pushing for years, as have residents of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas, for high speed rail between the two cities with possible connections to either Dallas/Fort Worth or Kansas City. It’s something that’s been pushed for for many years but nothing has ever happened. Oklahoma City finally did get Amtrak service to Fort Worth, but still nothing to Tulsa.
The idea was just an idea for much of the last ten years until recently when stimulus dollars and other funds were allocated to expand rail in America. This seemed like Oklahoma’s chance. But again, it failed. The federal government would not provide the funding, so the state is stuck again with nothing. Just cars clogging up already clogged highways in the state’s two largest metro areas and the area in between. You’d think that residents would be disappointed, but no. I noticed two comments on KOCO-TV’s web site (Oklahoma City’s ABC affiliate) where residents were delightful about the fact that the state is still stuck in the old days:
# Jul. 12, 2010 12:17pm
jbt103
Oh good, something else to fall into disrepair. What a waste of taxpayer money to even spend a minute thinking about it. There’s not that much traffic from OKC to Tulsa and what traffic there is is mostly semi-trucks that are just passing through.# Jul. 12, 2010 11:13am
boomer
Just what Oklahoma needs. I work at the refinery in Wynnewood and see the Heartland Flyer go by every day. Some days there are even people on it. Would be faster and more efficient to buy a 13 passenger van and drive the few that actually ride that money pit to Ft. Worth. Millions wasted on an ego trip.
Those are the morons that populate the majority of that state and they are what keep the large metropolitan areas so far behind the rest of the nation in infrastructure and development. I hope you all are proud of yourselves. You deserve to drive horse and buggies the rest of your lives. And you two are probably the ones who thought it would be a great idea to put a Bass Pro Shops and the American Banjo Museum in downtown Oklahoma City. Nothing screams 21st century city like banjos and fishing poles!
FIND OUT MORE:
KOCO-TV: State Still Fighting For High-Speed Rail
