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Liberals love trains. Someone tells them when to get on, when they'll get somewhere, where they can get off, and someone else paying most of the fare. They don't have to think for themselves because government will do it for them.
Trains and their associated support network rarely provide any real ROI from a capital investment perspective. That is why they are usually subsidized or built entirely by the Government who is in the position to decide what is in the public interest.
That's only true if you're focusing on the accounting of the system by itself. It is well documented that transit investment leads ripple effects (economic multipliers) that lead to increased growth and tax revenue for local governments. Second, governments in the West are particularly bad at asset management when it comes to transit. The Hong Kong MTR is profitable because the agency realized it's extensive real estate holdings could be leased out the private sector. The same market solutions are seen in Singapore. IMO, there's no reason US transit systems can't be profitable, we just have to mange public assets more efficiently.
It's all about spending other people's money. It's as addictive as crack cocaine.
But that’s happening right now with roads, and you don’t complain. Roads and highways are notorious for “pork barrel” spending.
I’m not saying that it makes sense to build high speed trains everywhere, but it probably makes sense in areas where big cities are relatively close together (NE corridor, Texas triangle, etc). I must say I’m skeptical about the SF to LA, because of the rugged terrain between the Central Valley and the LA basin.
But that’s happening right now with roads, and you don’t complain. Roads and highways are notorious for “pork barrel” spending.
I’m not saying that it makes sense to build high speed trains everywhere, but it probably makes sense in areas where big cities are relatively close together (NE corridor, Texas triangle, etc). I must say I’m skeptical about the SF to LA, because of the rugged terrain between the Central Valley and the LA basin.
Great post. I used public rail of various shapes and sizes for almost a decade when I graduated college and it was a self funding well run affair in general.
However, I've seen groups try to introduce rail into places where it lacks the population to support it....of course they'd not be bearing any of the financial risk.
There needs to be a very calculated financial approach with reasonable estimates made in order to undertake something like this. Some people just want it so bad that they try to gloss over that aspect.
Nonsense. Trains are great and conservatives don't "hate trains".
What they hate are wasteful boondoggle projects like this that will never pay for themselves or be profitable. It will be subsidized forever.
They have spent billions of dollars on a half-assed light rail system that blocks traffic, runs over pedestrians and is just an all around nuisance. No one rides the thing except criminals and homeless and none of them pay. And they keep expanding the stupid thing-this is the Twin Cities I’m talking about.
And you know how these dirty liberals get away with it? They created this all powerful entity called the “met council “ that dreams this crap up so they can point the finger at them.
They have spent billions of dollars on a half-assed light rail system that blocks traffic, runs over pedestrians and is just an all around nuisance. No one rides the thing except criminals and homeless and none of them pay. And they keep expanding the stupid thing-this is the Twin Cities I’m talking about.
And you know how these dirty liberals get away with it? They created this all powerful entity called the “met council “ that dreams this crap up so they can point the finger at them.
Today I learned that while in St Paul and Minneapolis I was a homeless criminal. Wow. Who knew?
Or maybe $98 billion. And partial service has been delayed to 2029.
Rail is a 20th century solution. But lots of crony capitalists will make billions of of this boondoggle. My guess is that this rail project will NEVER be completed.
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The California bullet train project took a sharp jump in price Friday when the state rail authority announced the cost of connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would total $77.3 billion, an increase of $13 billion from estimates two years ago, and could potentially rise as high as $98.1 billion.
The rail authority also said that the earliest trains could operate on a partial system between San Jose and the farming town of Wasco would be 2029, five years later than the previous projection. The disclosures are contained in a 114-page business plan that was issued in draft form by the rail authority and will be finalized this summer in a submission to the Legislature.
. Proving that with government work you can have it neither cheap nor fast, the earliest any major part of the system might be fully operational is now 2029, not 2024, with the major San Francisco to Anaheim line not on target til 2033.
JOKE
Although I do understand that there is huge traffic congestion in California, but this bullet train doesn't seem to be a cost effective solution.
True nobody commutes from Los Angeles to San Francisco. At best you move the congestion from the area airports to the area train stations for those with a couple of hours more time
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