The American affluent mindset is going to choke itself to a big halt anyway. The EBAY commercial defines the almighty "it" as whatever we want (or need--or think that we need). We demand that "it" make its way to us as inexpensively and quickly as possible. If "it" is electronic, we will simply plug "it" in and a plentiful supply of electricity will being "it" to life. We will smile (and probably show "it" off to our friends--to subtly show them that we are more affluent than they). When the delivery system becomes a hindrance, we will demand an improvement. When that planned new alternative is within range of one or more of our senses, we will whine and insist that the new system be built near somebody else's domicile. When we note that "it" is only functioning at partial power or not at all because "all of the other idiots have their "its" plugged in at the same time", we will demand an improvement to that delivery system......................... Here in Spokane, we have recently had trouble with locations of some planned WalMart stores--the final delivery entity once "it" makes it in, gets distributed, and finally displayed. I'm sure this area is not alone.

Isn't this project interesting in that up until now, it appears that most Americans and a certain RR company saw the project as being the best of both worlds--The big, unsightly new port was going to be built on "somebody else's" coastline and somebody else's mountain range was going to be blasted through to build a railroad link. It seems to appear that the Mexican people are now looking at the project that will only benefit the Americans (except for the people employed at the port or the railroad) and saying Hmmm--wait a second here.

The steamship companies currently pass 16 or so million TEUs through west coast ports annually. The forecast by the mid-2000-teens is somewhere around 30 million. Punta Colonet was figured to be good for around 3.5 million max. The new Prince Rupert Port will do less than a million. LA/Long Beach is currently doing more than half by themselves. They won't have the ability to double what they do. The Bay Area is about tapped out of capacity. The Puget Sound can grow some, but is constrained by railroad capacity to the east. There are some proposals for new facilities, but can anybody see the NIMBYs allowing anything new that will allow a doubling of capacity--not only on the waterfront but also in the delivery system?