The Chinese would have a difficult time trying to reconstruct many former rows and they would need municipal condemnation powers to accomplish the thousands of takings that task would require. They would not be popular.

If any doubt this information, take a search online using “abandoned railroad ROWs as your key words, just to start. Abutting property owners are also encroaching on ROWs that haven’t been converted to recreational purposes yet. The days of major expansion of rail ROWs is probably over. They grew best when they preceded development in the open planes and far western states. The best they could hope to do is improve some still living – but highly subsidized major corridors.

The Chinese may not actually know what they a would be getting into because land use law is not the same as they are accustomed to. They would have legal problems they cannot imagine.

There are plenty of municipal issues that are worth investing in. For the Chinese to continue their current strategy, they need to invest the trade surplus in something besides t-bonds. For them to invest in non-federal projects is a fantastic idea for both sides. Federal projects are run by scum–Obama included.

I though we owned that infrastructure.