Erie Canal: Not Obsolete

NYS BargeCanal lock 17, originally uploaded by Ojiisan44

Hints of Comeback for Nation’s First Superhighway:

After decades of decline, commercial shipping has returned to the Erie Canal, though it is a far cry from the canal’s heyday. The number of shipments rose to 42 so far this year during the season the canal is open, from 15 during last year’s season, which lasts from May 1 to Nov. 15.
Once nearly forgotten, the relic of history has shown signs of life as higher fuel prices have made barges an attractive alternative to trucks.
…
The canal still remains the most fuel-efficient way to ship goods between the East Coast and the upper Midwest. One gallon of diesel pulls one ton of cargo 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by train and 514 miles by canal barge, Ms. Mantello said. A single barge can carry 3,000 tons, enough to replace 100 trucks.

Monday Morning Links

And now for the political links:

Excess Airport Capacity

Sky Bridge, originally uploaded by plemeljr

Airports Grow Apace, but the Timing Seems Off:

The biggest miscalculations in new construction occurred in hub cities where airports spent billions to meet the needs of a single carrier, only to see the airline drastically shrink its presence.
In St. Louis, the airport authority spent $1.1 billion on a new runway that opened in 2006, even though traffic is down 53.9 percent since 2000. American Airlines dropped many flights following its acquisition of Trans World Airlines, which had been the main carrier there.
The Pittsburgh airport authority spent $1 billion on a new terminal in the early 1990s for US Airways. But passenger traffic there is down by almost half this decade because of cutbacks by US Airways.
And in Cincinnati, the airport authority spent $500 million in the mid-1990s on construction that included a new terminal for Delta Air Lines. And it added a third runway in 2005, its busiest year. Since then, passenger traffic has fallen 36.4 percent as Delta cut back. On a recent weekday morning, half the parking spots were empty in the airport’s main garage, which was expanded only months before 9/11.

All of those cities are in the Midwest and easily connected with High Speed Rail; the $2 billion spent in the pull quote above would have qualified for matching grants from the FTA (even if Ma Peters was still in power). Now with Delta and Northwest merging, much of the infrastructure built in the last five years will lay dormant until the next surge in air traffic. (if there is another surge).

Marathon!

The NYC Marathon is perhaps the happiest day in New York City, with seemingly the whole city cheering the runners on.

Obama Can Lose FL, OH & PA and Still Win

ev-loss_win
I’ve been going over Electoral Vote scenarios for a side project (about to be released soon), gaming out the different plausible scenarios. Something surprising happened, I found that Obama can lose Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. All he needs to do is win Virginia and North Carolina (where he has been consistently up) and take either Nevada, Missouri, or Indiana. If he loses North Carolina he needs to win all three. Or he can just win Pennsylvania where he has enjoyed double-digit leads.
As I was writing this, Nate Silver of 538 posted Pennsylvanua Sanity Check making the same case, but with math:

Suppose that Barack Obama were to concede Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. Literally, concede them. Throw ’em back, like a Chase Utley home run at a Cubs game. How often would he still win the election?
…89.0% of the time, according to our most recent run of simulations, along with another 2.4% of outcomes that ended in ties. This is because in the vast majority of our simulations, Obama either:
a) was winning at least 291 electoral votes, meaning that he could drop Pennsylvania’s 21 and still be over 270, and/or
b) was winning at least 270 electoral votes, while already being projected to lose Pennsylvania in the first place.
(a) was much, much more common than (b), obviously.

Developing…