Swiss celebrate digging world's longest tunnel

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Swiss celebrate digging world's longest tunnel

SEDRUN, Switzerland – Workers hugged, cheered and set off fireworks as the huge drill broke through the last stretch of rock deep in the Swiss Alps. There was delight at the end of the tunnel — the world's longest — when it was completed Friday.

The $10 billion, 35.4-mile (57-kilometer) tube will connect Europe's high-speed rail network and is part of a larger effort to cut in half the number of trucks — now at 1.2 million — that thunder through the Alps each year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_switzerland_world_s_longest_tunnel

thats awesome...i wish the US would invest more in high-speed rail
 
The main problem with high speed rail in the US is that it only makes sense in a few megaregions. Since the US has such an unusually high rural population, it wouldn't be popular for the federal government to spend great amounts of money on this. And state and municipal governments just don't have enough money to spend on it because it would be unpopular to raise taxes that high.

For instance, a plan to connect LA to San Fransisco they were talking about building in California would've cost 50 million in total, which is California's state budget (and California already has above average rates of taxation).
 
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Watermarx said:
The main problem with high speed rail in the US is that it only makes sense in a few megaregions. Since the US has such an unusually high rural population, it wouldn't be popular for the federal government to spend great amounts of money on this. And state and municipal governments just don't have enough money to spend on it because it would be unpopular to raise taxes that high.

For instance, a plan to connect LA to San Fransisco they were talking about building in California would've cost 50 million in total, which is California's state budget (and California already has above average rates of taxation).
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california's budget is not in the millions, it is in the billions......
 
Something I hadn't really considered until a few years ago. Most road and rail tunnels are not straight - oh yes, I'm sure American tunnels are...... well mybe not.
It is because of the strong likelihood of the setting up of a venturi effect which could cause winds of enormous speeds and thereby accidents.
Yes, of course you all knew that, didn't you?
 
Lowaicue said:
Something I hadn't really considered until a few years ago. Most road and rail tunnels are not straight - oh yes, I'm sure American tunnels are...... well mybe not.
It is because of the strong likelihood of the setting up of a venturi effect which could cause winds of enormous speeds and thereby accidents.
Yes, of course you all knew that, didn't you?
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No, I hadn't considered it. I tend not to think about trains.
 
The King of Proles said:
No, trains go on rails. Dumbass.
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I bow to you superior intelect. You have proved, if proof was ever necessary, the total redundancy of American education in a country whose citizens know everything from birth. I guess that is why you are all doing so well. LOL.
LOL
LOL
 
tom prendergast said:
There are seven US universities in the top 10 worldwide, so they must be doing something right surely?

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html
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There are something like 30 Colleges in Oxford. There are also a hell of a lot of what our colonial cousins might term 'dumbasses' in Oxford. The UK has 300+ Unis or one uni per 200,000 of the population.
America has something like 4000. (not all are classified as 'universities', some are 'degree granting institutions') or one per 75,000 of the population.
Ipso facto a far greater proportion of US citizens attend Uni than UK citizens.
And STILL they create the Tea Party, Bush, Rove and that ridiculous woman who looks like a horse and whose name escapes me, not to mention the 40%+ who believe the earth to be a few thousand years old and deny evolution and those who believe their faeces carry no odour!.
By default then, it is clear that SOME do SOME things right. Should one ask many Americans to point up to the sky they would stand confused and dumbfounded.

To change an old... very old joke:

How do you confuse and American?
Show him two shovels and ask him to take his pick! Boom Boom!
 
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