Imperative 40: 19th vision: mega co-ops' elevated railways with E85-fueled auxiliary power generators
The sole Philippine ground-level State-run railway company and a State-managed elevated light railway company have been notorious for unbelievable inefficiency and corruption. One recent poverty-maintaining scandal: Rehabilitation of a non-operational hundred-kilometer or so Spanish-era (1890s) ground-level railway line consumed billions of pesos in initial construction costs, advances to suppliers, and transfer payouts to squatters. The money used came from Chinese loans payable by local people's taxes. As with all other major State contracts, million-peso payouts to local politician signatories and their 'facilitators' have been considered by media and knowledgeable people as a 'given'. More bureaucratic cuts were 'most certainly' made (say critics) out of massive payments to relocated squatters and lot title claimants to old railway lands. What were actually built however were just a few pylons for a planned elevated railway line of the Spanish-era railway. Reason: A losing contract bidder initiated corruption charges in court against the winning bidder and managed to obtain a 'temporary restraining order' from a judge. 'Temporary' led to eight years of court battles, with decades more tussles expected and nothing built up to the present (2019) aside from the said pylons.
Another public 'infuriator': The previously-mentioned elevated light railway's defective mechanical and electrical systems caused multiple part failures and almost daily trip stoppages because State-appointed officers popularly believed to have received kickbacks bought incompatible and low-quality parts and even whole incompatible train coaches from a Chinese company. Furthermore, said officers contracted an inexperienced South Korean company to handle maintenance for the entire Japanese-built train system. Only after the ('non-bribing') Japanese company was reinstated as maintenance contractor did the years-long problem begin to end, with billions of pesos in taxes wasted by the past maintenance contractor and parts suppliers. Comparatively, another elevated electric railway system maintained by the same European company that built it has experienced very few trip stoppages over decades of operation.
A third indicator of centuries-old corruption and inefficiency: An American-built (early 1900s) ground-level colonial era railway line has ceased to operate 99% of its 600-kilometer route the past decades due to lack of interest from government regimes, especially after one typhoon damaged a major railway bridge. The rehabilitation did not resume because as some quarters say, in the country's main political base (Luzon island), politicians from the north always won elections, and the railway line served the south, where politicians often formed minority contrarian parties. Regionalism is in fact reflected in the north's over-developed public works (except the defunct railway line) compared to decrepit and scarce southern infrastructures.
The results of State mishandling of railway operations have impinged directly upon climate change. Non-operational railway eras forced millions of riders and freight handlers to take to buses, jeepneys and trucks with their 10-20 year old engines (rebuilt out of imported used engines) that spew noxious soot, CO2 and carbon monoxide day and night into the atmosphere.
So what's the clean, corruption-free solution? The most effective remedy is to take away railway ownership and management from government to prevent politicians from appointing inexperienced directors who are popularly believed to act as fundraisers for political parties' election campaigns, with 'for own pocket' commissions on the side. Party fundraising operations milk State projects dry, and the personal cuts of hordes of bureaucrats involved in purchase of supplies and services hasten such projects' demise.
Here therefore are the initial systemic remedies which address both political regionalism and 'traditional' corruption at the same time: a) Voting masses set up an Internet Congress thru the current People's Initiative law whereby 12% of voters may revise any law. Some 600,000 (1% of voters) top retired corporate and sectoral officials and managers compose the referendum-style I-Congress which creates policies and approves contracts thru website voting; b) I-Congress as committees of thousands or 'committee of the whole' approve all major plans and contracts relating to railway companies' operations. Contractors will find it impossible to bribe thousands of approver 'names' so corruption grinds to a stop on permanent basis.
How may I-Congress and related parties rehabilitate old railways and build new rail lines? Here's the vision: a) The mega co-op dominated government invites 1st world CSR consortia that includes power plant builders to set up mini hydropower chains and geothermal plants countrywide on build-operate-transfer basis. Scores of BOT companies building such facilities all at the same time should provide trillion-watt level power within several years. Part of the electricity produced should power railway lines nationwide; b) To build one elevated railway line, a hundred or so Philippine mega co-ops, State and private corporations contribute P10 million to P50 million each to form 60% of capital for a double-tracked elevated (low-height) railway line. Scores of 1st World CSR companies that include railway equipment manufacturers provide the remaining 40% of capital. 75% of project costs get to be provided thru purchase of the joint ventures' 10-year bond tranches by world Climate Change funds, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and 1st World State Aid agencies. Interest rates should be ultra-low for the sake of CO2 sequestration. Fifty or so joint ventures thus funded complete the simultaneous building of elevated railway lines nationwide, just as giant mega co-op agro-forest based corporate groups get to be set up countrywide. Since the Philippine government becomes a mere part-owner of the railway lines thru investments by State corporations and agencies, local State officials will be unable to appoint top officers in the new railway projects. The joint venture companies' contract approval by referendum (a part of their by-laws) require 30+% of top investors to approve contracts and vote on bids via website. The process further prevents corruption, since no supplier will be able to afford bribing thousands of approvers who are corporate shareholders' proxies, or being pensioners have risked large amounts of their personal funds in their joint venture.
The new companies must target construction of all-elevated light railways, with pylons at just five meters height to keep construction costs low while preventing more of the thousands of railway crossing deaths and accidents typical of past ground level railway operations. To compensate for the low height, all road crossings for motor vehicles must be dug to four meters depth to create sufficient safety clearance for tall trucks. Ship container trucks' heavy cargo loads may be 'bulk-breaked' for low-cost transport by the electric-powered trains.
Elevated railways' pylons and track platforms must be over-engineered especially along sections of clayey or deep-bedrock soils to prevent damage from an average of 20 typhoons and consequent floods that have historically destroyed bridges and long sections of ground-level railway tracks in the Philippines. Pylons set on bedrock should prevent old-style yearly (or permanent) stoppage of trips after every typhoon season consequent to railway tracks set on aggregate-hardened clayey or loose soils which are no match to Philippine-scale typhoons and flood waters.
The new elevated railways should be double-tracked due to the enormous volumes of freight and passengers incident to operations of over a million giant mega co-op joint venture farms and factories in rural areas. The co-ops' joint venture resorts, tour agencies and satellite schools for foreigners will also multiply tourist arrivals ten times or more. Like local passengers, tourists should enjoy low-fare 1st World standard train coaches.
All trains must by default be powered by overhead or track-level cables fed by electric lines but should be equipped with banks of E85-fueled generators to provide power during cable outages caused by typhoons and equipment failures. The scheme should enable Philippine trains to run non-stop year-round even during typhoons. New lines must be built along remote regions where more mega co-ops will operate. The entire scheme should help de-clog urban roads and rid the cities of their large slum districts as job offers in the millions arise all over the countryside incident to mega coops-driven industrialization of rural Philippines facilitated by railway systems.
The railway equipment builders and parts-supplier companies should co-own the lines they built at 20% or so in combined capital shares. Such provision will ensure that builder and supplier companies will maintain Philippine railway lines at top shape for all time due to investment risk and good rewards. All local railway employees must buy capital shares as well thru installment plans. As part-owners expecting good dividend rewards and rises in their shares' market prices, they will consequently work ultra-efficiently and quickly sniff and report small-time corruption attempts if any.
What are the carbon mitigation effects of such schemes? Without clean-powered trains, mega co-op corporate groups and millions of their dependent upstream and downstream businesses will still be forced to use the same old public transports (10-20 year old buses and trucks) currently plying Philippine roads. Once operational, the proposed 'clean trains' should prevent such pollution-creating tragedy. With luck, truck and bus owners may convert to new locally-manufactured (thru joint ventures) E85 engines to minimize the effect of customers lost to the trains. The co-ops should also encourage such transport operators to buy shares in the railway joint ventures which will yield high 'problems-free' income. The resultant new mix of electric powered and E85-fueled public transports, plus the electric vehicles, bikes and trikes described in a previous post should together prevent millions of tons of Philippine-sourced CO2 getting added to the atmosphere each year. Copied by other 3rd World countries, the described transport systems will help in greatly reducing the 60 or so million tons of the gas currently exuded each year by world industries and transports. As to the mega co-ops, their agroforests will perpetually 'inhale' CO2 and 'exhale' oxygen because their protection and care get to be perpetually funded thru world-scale business facilitated by the railway systems.
Another public 'infuriator': The previously-mentioned elevated light railway's defective mechanical and electrical systems caused multiple part failures and almost daily trip stoppages because State-appointed officers popularly believed to have received kickbacks bought incompatible and low-quality parts and even whole incompatible train coaches from a Chinese company. Furthermore, said officers contracted an inexperienced South Korean company to handle maintenance for the entire Japanese-built train system. Only after the ('non-bribing') Japanese company was reinstated as maintenance contractor did the years-long problem begin to end, with billions of pesos in taxes wasted by the past maintenance contractor and parts suppliers. Comparatively, another elevated electric railway system maintained by the same European company that built it has experienced very few trip stoppages over decades of operation.
A third indicator of centuries-old corruption and inefficiency: An American-built (early 1900s) ground-level colonial era railway line has ceased to operate 99% of its 600-kilometer route the past decades due to lack of interest from government regimes, especially after one typhoon damaged a major railway bridge. The rehabilitation did not resume because as some quarters say, in the country's main political base (Luzon island), politicians from the north always won elections, and the railway line served the south, where politicians often formed minority contrarian parties. Regionalism is in fact reflected in the north's over-developed public works (except the defunct railway line) compared to decrepit and scarce southern infrastructures.
The results of State mishandling of railway operations have impinged directly upon climate change. Non-operational railway eras forced millions of riders and freight handlers to take to buses, jeepneys and trucks with their 10-20 year old engines (rebuilt out of imported used engines) that spew noxious soot, CO2 and carbon monoxide day and night into the atmosphere.
So what's the clean, corruption-free solution? The most effective remedy is to take away railway ownership and management from government to prevent politicians from appointing inexperienced directors who are popularly believed to act as fundraisers for political parties' election campaigns, with 'for own pocket' commissions on the side. Party fundraising operations milk State projects dry, and the personal cuts of hordes of bureaucrats involved in purchase of supplies and services hasten such projects' demise.
Here therefore are the initial systemic remedies which address both political regionalism and 'traditional' corruption at the same time: a) Voting masses set up an Internet Congress thru the current People's Initiative law whereby 12% of voters may revise any law. Some 600,000 (1% of voters) top retired corporate and sectoral officials and managers compose the referendum-style I-Congress which creates policies and approves contracts thru website voting; b) I-Congress as committees of thousands or 'committee of the whole' approve all major plans and contracts relating to railway companies' operations. Contractors will find it impossible to bribe thousands of approver 'names' so corruption grinds to a stop on permanent basis.
How may I-Congress and related parties rehabilitate old railways and build new rail lines? Here's the vision: a) The mega co-op dominated government invites 1st world CSR consortia that includes power plant builders to set up mini hydropower chains and geothermal plants countrywide on build-operate-transfer basis. Scores of BOT companies building such facilities all at the same time should provide trillion-watt level power within several years. Part of the electricity produced should power railway lines nationwide; b) To build one elevated railway line, a hundred or so Philippine mega co-ops, State and private corporations contribute P10 million to P50 million each to form 60% of capital for a double-tracked elevated (low-height) railway line. Scores of 1st World CSR companies that include railway equipment manufacturers provide the remaining 40% of capital. 75% of project costs get to be provided thru purchase of the joint ventures' 10-year bond tranches by world Climate Change funds, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and 1st World State Aid agencies. Interest rates should be ultra-low for the sake of CO2 sequestration. Fifty or so joint ventures thus funded complete the simultaneous building of elevated railway lines nationwide, just as giant mega co-op agro-forest based corporate groups get to be set up countrywide. Since the Philippine government becomes a mere part-owner of the railway lines thru investments by State corporations and agencies, local State officials will be unable to appoint top officers in the new railway projects. The joint venture companies' contract approval by referendum (a part of their by-laws) require 30+% of top investors to approve contracts and vote on bids via website. The process further prevents corruption, since no supplier will be able to afford bribing thousands of approvers who are corporate shareholders' proxies, or being pensioners have risked large amounts of their personal funds in their joint venture.
The new companies must target construction of all-elevated light railways, with pylons at just five meters height to keep construction costs low while preventing more of the thousands of railway crossing deaths and accidents typical of past ground level railway operations. To compensate for the low height, all road crossings for motor vehicles must be dug to four meters depth to create sufficient safety clearance for tall trucks. Ship container trucks' heavy cargo loads may be 'bulk-breaked' for low-cost transport by the electric-powered trains.
Elevated railways' pylons and track platforms must be over-engineered especially along sections of clayey or deep-bedrock soils to prevent damage from an average of 20 typhoons and consequent floods that have historically destroyed bridges and long sections of ground-level railway tracks in the Philippines. Pylons set on bedrock should prevent old-style yearly (or permanent) stoppage of trips after every typhoon season consequent to railway tracks set on aggregate-hardened clayey or loose soils which are no match to Philippine-scale typhoons and flood waters.
The new elevated railways should be double-tracked due to the enormous volumes of freight and passengers incident to operations of over a million giant mega co-op joint venture farms and factories in rural areas. The co-ops' joint venture resorts, tour agencies and satellite schools for foreigners will also multiply tourist arrivals ten times or more. Like local passengers, tourists should enjoy low-fare 1st World standard train coaches.
All trains must by default be powered by overhead or track-level cables fed by electric lines but should be equipped with banks of E85-fueled generators to provide power during cable outages caused by typhoons and equipment failures. The scheme should enable Philippine trains to run non-stop year-round even during typhoons. New lines must be built along remote regions where more mega co-ops will operate. The entire scheme should help de-clog urban roads and rid the cities of their large slum districts as job offers in the millions arise all over the countryside incident to mega coops-driven industrialization of rural Philippines facilitated by railway systems.
The railway equipment builders and parts-supplier companies should co-own the lines they built at 20% or so in combined capital shares. Such provision will ensure that builder and supplier companies will maintain Philippine railway lines at top shape for all time due to investment risk and good rewards. All local railway employees must buy capital shares as well thru installment plans. As part-owners expecting good dividend rewards and rises in their shares' market prices, they will consequently work ultra-efficiently and quickly sniff and report small-time corruption attempts if any.
What are the carbon mitigation effects of such schemes? Without clean-powered trains, mega co-op corporate groups and millions of their dependent upstream and downstream businesses will still be forced to use the same old public transports (10-20 year old buses and trucks) currently plying Philippine roads. Once operational, the proposed 'clean trains' should prevent such pollution-creating tragedy. With luck, truck and bus owners may convert to new locally-manufactured (thru joint ventures) E85 engines to minimize the effect of customers lost to the trains. The co-ops should also encourage such transport operators to buy shares in the railway joint ventures which will yield high 'problems-free' income. The resultant new mix of electric powered and E85-fueled public transports, plus the electric vehicles, bikes and trikes described in a previous post should together prevent millions of tons of Philippine-sourced CO2 getting added to the atmosphere each year. Copied by other 3rd World countries, the described transport systems will help in greatly reducing the 60 or so million tons of the gas currently exuded each year by world industries and transports. As to the mega co-ops, their agroforests will perpetually 'inhale' CO2 and 'exhale' oxygen because their protection and care get to be perpetually funded thru world-scale business facilitated by the railway systems.
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