That was state senator Mary Haugen, at an ironically assembled dinner of would-be rail advocates attended by Joel Connelly who describes it in a column in the P-I today.
“Why is the technologically most advanced nation on earth so far behind on rail?” state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, asked at the dinner [having apparently forgotten her own efforts to strangle Sound Transit in the crib].
Yes, the mayor of Vancouver was there too, hoping Ottawa would pay for customs inspections, although, considering the problems the Adirondack has always faced from US Customs, we may forgive the Canadians for not being too forgiving here. And Bruce Chapman, from the Discovery Institute, another fair-weather friend of passenger rail.
Let’s be clear about one thing- rail transportation does not begin with buying a car and spending 98% of your transportation dollar on freeways. Rail transportation is about taking a train to the city center and finding a metro or streetcar that can take you to a station within walking distance of your destination. It’s about an investment a society can’t make when everyone is paying $3-400 month for their cars.
Hopefully, our state DOT is energized by the thought of federal funding. It will take more than a dinner to make it so.
Question: “Why is the technologically most advanced nation on earth so far behind on rail?”
Answer: “Because of people like you, Sister Mary Margaret.”