Comments on: Administration Releases High-Speed Rail Plan.

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:31:37 +0000

Can you say Arrogant Swell Head? Thanks for dropping in from nowhere to share the views of newbies to this discussion who are undeterred by facts or experience. Now please go back where you came from. Your contribution exemplifies the maxim that Less is More.

By: John Bredin

John Bredin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:22:19 +0000

If I were emperor of the world, I would decree that no person can argue that nobody will ride trains unless they first actually ride a passenger train or at least go to Chicago Union Station. If they can still say nobody will ride with a straight face (or without their nose growing like Pinocchio) then they may say it.

By: Train

Train — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:46:56 +0000

Can you say “Boon-doggle”, children? You will find that 8 billion dollars of federal money has already been wasted on high speed rail projects since 1965. Nobody wants to use it. The feds will run it. Cf: Amtrak & the USPS. The best excuse Durbin & Quinn could up with is that it will save Cub fans one whole hour when they’re wasting a whole day anyways going to St. Louis to see a ball game. South Spur Rail Services

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:52:13 +0000

Houston will have to wait for Dallas-San Antonio HSR, which is a more sensible starter line for Texas than Dallas-Houston.

By: Woody

Woody — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:01:00 +0000

liam — Don’t worry. The map is obsolete.

But this fact is still current: Neither Louisiana nor Texas is planning to spend any matching funds on HSR, so lines on the map, or the absence of lines, make no difference at all. Houston will have to wait for Govs Perry and Jindal to grow up – not likely any time soon, is it?

By: liam

liam — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:25:52 +0000

how come houston is only connected with new orlens and not san antonio?

By: Da Moose

Da Moose — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:32:48 +0000

Where do these people live? Fantasyland? How do the Obama cronies plan to pay for this. Oh that’s right ,there’s always the tax payers. Oh and if we run out of funds we can always borrow more. The Deficit doesn’t matter cause it will just magically disappear right?

By: Gene Callahan

Gene Callahan — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:06:03 +0000

“Those deficiencies in the existing plan are likely to be remedied as the administration selects the most cost efficient and valuable routes for funding.”

Which, of course, will happen as soon as it snows in hell. Instead, of course, what the administration will wind up doing is selecting the routes that win the votes of key congressman and please major campaign contributors and lobbyists.

By: Mad Park

Mad Park — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:32:19 +0000

Before the excitement levels get to a fever pitch here…
A reality check: US$8B will be barely enough money to buy some new equipment for a corridor or two and do ROW work to raise speeds to 80-90 MPH over some stretches of some corridors. NO high speed “system” will built for US$8B or even US$80B, and no system will be completed even in an 8 year Obama Administration. Remember, Japan started in the 1960s, France in the 1970s, other European nations even later. Only Spain has pushed so hard to have a more or less complete system built in about 15 years. It will require a major change of national will and investment priorities, and, say, a trillion dollars over 20 years or more to develop true high speed with hourly frequencies on all the routes on the map.

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:09:59 +0000

Ha ha ha ha. I was mostly kidding about not spending on HSR in Deep Dixie. I grew up in Texas and I have roots in half the former Confederacy. But I did not vote for Rick Perry, or for secession.

That said, the route map shows as much politics as population. I mean, Little Rock to Dallas via Hope, Arkansas? That was put on the map under what President? And HSR from Boston to Montreal, but not from NYC to Montreal? Meanwhile there’s no connection between Pittsburgh and Youngstown and Cleveland, or Buffalo and Cleveland. I know those old cities are rusting away, but come on.

And I was glad to see this in the AP story on the Yahoo front page:
“We are very jazzed about it,” said Karen Parsons, executive director of the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission. She said preliminary numbers showed that they could increase capacity and speed on the existing New Orleans-Baton Rouge line for about $150 million to $200 million, and for $500 million they could expand service from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala.

I’m ready to drop $200 million on Baton Rouge right now. Half a billion on Mobile? Get in line with the others.