If they want to pay me to sit on a train and read for 6 days instead of doing work in the office or off-site, who am I to complain?

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Amazing statistics:

The US transports 50 times as many tonnes of freight over rail as the Netherlands, 500 times as many kilometer-tonnes. The US transports twice as many tonnes by rail as the EU, 7 times as many kilometer-tonnes.

Amtrak serves 24.3 million passengers per year, Dutch railways 438 million per year.

Oh, absolutely. But, the products that travel by rail aren't quite as time-sensitive, nor generally able to be shipped any other way. Coal, for example. Lumber is another.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

I think it also shows that the US economy is far more interconnected than the European economy. The difference in freight statistics was even more impressive 10 years ago when Europe was even less integrated.

Rail-freight doesnt care if it spends 3 days getting across country while shoved into a tiny seat.

People, on the other hand, DO.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Of course we are! We're one nation as compared to a number of them.

As someone previously pointed out, Europeans really do not seem to have any concept of the scale involved.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Yessur massa
weez dont now just how big urs countrie is. Issit like bigger than the moon ?

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

It was in Scientific American a few years ago, in their 50, 100 and 150 years ago section, just a reprint of a piece of the article from 100 years before about the new 110 MPH rail service between NYC and Albany, and that was done with coal fired steam engines.

The US is big, but hardly anyone lives in the middle, coast to coast high speed rail doesn't make much sense, but a high speed corridor down the East coast, or just the Bos-Wash corridor would save millions of barrels of oil.
Out where the population is 2 per sq mile, high speed rail doesn't make as much sense, but where the population is as dense as Europe, it makes plenty of sense.

The French TGV has reached speeds of 356 MPH (576 KPH) in tests, the Chinese have a 430 KPH maglev train.

At those speeds rail can be very competitive with air travel, at a huge fuel savings. And the fuel is electricity, which can be generated using nuclear power, producing zero greenhouse emissions.
Even using coal to produce the electricity substitutes a fuel that is abundant in the US for the imported petroleum that aircraft guzzle.

It would take all new track and right of ways, you can't cross roads with a high speed train you need a limited access right of way.

But unless you see $10/barrel oil 50 years from now, high speed rail makes tremendous sense.

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

I see that there are no answers as to Why it is the MD-80 that is the topic of this by the feds...
The MD-80 has had other challenges, but not the wires in and around the wheels that I can remember.
And none of the posters here are asking that question.

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Fear the Government

I mentioned it much earlier when someone mentioned this to be blatant disregard for human life or something. When in fact this is not a life and death matter.
I am certainly aware of the issues with the MD80 family. They did a similar thing back in 2000 or so when Alaska Airlines had one go down with all lives as a result of the jack screw system that operates the horizontal stabilizer.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

There's no need to be a jerk. Its a simple statement of fact. Many people in europe really dont have any concept of the scale, anymore than your typical American understands there is a whole world outside our borders.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Cool...have to look into that.
Did you notice that Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul and a LOT of other very large cities are in the middle of the US?

I will grant you that population densities are higher on the coasts, but dont pretend there's hardly anyone in the middle. I take some offense at that living in the 3rd largest city in the US, which happens to be located in the 2nd most populous state, smack dab in the middle of the country.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

So, now they've discovered a new design flaw.

It happens.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

My understanding is that many of these MD-80 aircraft were the subject of an Airworthiness Directive mandating inspection of certain wiring harnesses and upgrades to the harness brackets.

The AD set forth an amount of time and/or number of takeoffs and landings by which the work had to be done, and the airline didn't get the work done in the time alloted.

So now they are scrambling to get it done before they get fined.

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

Yeah i was thinking about that, maybe a week's peace and quiet away from work would help every now and then. Tbh the best part of the AA deal i got was not the free night at the hilton but the $1000 voucher both me and my wife got to use in the next year for AA.