社評 0628 基建老舊 火車出軌

基建老舊 火車出軌

一輛美國國內火車週日下午在舊金山附近的布林伍市撞上一輛汽車後 造成三人死亡之悲劇， 救火隊發言人表示， 三人是當塲斃命。

在此同時 ，一輛從密蘇里開往芝加哥的列車， 上面有二百四十三位乘客，撞上了一輛垃圾車後脫軌也造成三人死亡之慘劇。

我們不禁要問 ，這些火車為何連續造成傷亡車禍 ，這就是美國的交通基礎建設真的太破舊了。

七十年代美國修建之高速公路及鐵路缐， 至今已經超過了半個世紀之久 ，許多機場橋樑已経破舊失修， 這些都己経造成許多交通事故。

今天在七國峯會上 ，拜登總統及七國領䄂同意籌措六千億資金來協助世界上許多國家來進行基礎建設之計劃， 以對抗中國大陸一帶一路之計劃。

我們要問 ，美國的基建是什麼時候要開始呢 ？多少年來， 每屆政府不斷高喊要改進我們的機塲、道 路及橋樑及火車軌道 ，至今只是聽到樓梯響起，但未見人下。

遺憾的是， 光就一天就有兩起火車出軌及撞車慘案， 而交通部也是束手無策。

美國政府之預算， 嚴控在國會議員手中， 如今共和民主兩黨許多政見水火不容， 只有在軍援預算一擲就是數百億，這些錢不知能能修建多少公路及軌道了。

Our Infrastructure Needs To Be Rebuilt

An Amtrak train and a car collided in northern California and three people are dead and at least two others have been injured.

The crash occurred Sunday at around 1:00 pm when the car collided with the train near the city of Brentwood which is located 60 miles from San Francisco.

A fire department spokesman said the three people whose identities were not revealed were pronounced dead at the scene.

In another accident, three people also are dead and at least 50 injured after an Amtrak train derailed Monday evening in Missouri. The highway patrol said two of the people who were killed were aboard the train, while the third person was in a dump truck that the train struck. The tragic incident happened at an uncontrolled intersection without warning lights or motion gates.

We just want to ask why these trains cause so many casualties and car accidents continuously? Is it because our transportation infrastructure is so bad?

It has been more than fifty years ago since we built many of the highways, railroads and airports and bridges in the U.S. Many of them have been dilapidated for many years and most have gone without repairs which has caused many of these deadly traffic accidents.

Today President Biden and the G7 countries announced they will raise 600 billion dollars to help many countries in need to build their infrastructures to compete with China's Belt and Road project.

When we look back to our own backyard, we need to ask when are we going to start our own infrastructure work to improve our transportation and railroad systems? Every administration has promised to do so, but we are still waiting.

We might have billions of dollars to give to other countries for military aid, but when we look at our own problems, who can give us help?

The budget of the government is strictly controlled by our Congress. If the two parties can’t agree on spending bills for our infrastructure, then we just don’t have a budget to do anything.