California Republicans are proposing to divert federal grants for the state’s high-speed rail program to improving U.S. Highway 99 instead. Highway 99 is the major route through California’s Central Valley connecting Modesto, Fresno, and Bakersfield, while Interstate 5 skips those major cities. Highway 99 is highly congested and is in relatively poor shape, and Representatives Denham, Nunes, and McCarthy argue that fixing and expanding it would do more for the region’s economy at a lower cost than high-speed rail.
Over in China, the head of the country’s high-speed rail authority was fired for some combination of corruption and poor quality construction. Recent reports found that low-quality concrete was used in constructing some Chinese high-speed rail routes, which is likely to create maintenance headaches and force slow-downs in the trains in as little as five year.
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Back in Washington, DC, an escalator at the Foggy Bottom MetroRail stop seems to have fallen apart, leaving a “gaping hole with riders on it.” When the Antiplanner was in DC earlier this week, I noticed many of the escalators on the Metro system were out of service or being repaired. But all of the escalators in the House Rayburn Office Building were in excellent shape. Funny how that works.
Up in New York, John Stossel discusses driverless cars and compares them with high-speed rail.
Washington DC Metro escalators – see Megan McArdle “Incentives Matter” at http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/incentives-matter/67525/
Driving HWY 99 sucked so bad in the 90s. I can’t imagine how bad it is now.
Portland is retarded.
DC is political.
What else is new?
It will be interesting to see how the ambitious HSR in CA will come to fruition with money being diverted away along with the rules regarding cost CA has imposed on HSR. It just doesn’t seem possible to me.
I’m not familiar with the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, but I have noticed some of the ridiculously long escalators in the Metro system. Bethesda comes to mind. When I’m there I use metro a lot, but to be honest, I get a little uncomfortable on some of those huge escalators.
bennett wrote:
I’m not familiar with the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, but I have noticed some of the ridiculously long escalators in the Metro system. Bethesda comes to mind. When I’m there I use metro a lot, but to be honest, I get a little uncomfortable on some of those huge escalators.
Bethesda (Md.) stop on the Washington Metrorail system? A decidedly wimpy escalator, when compared to the one at Wheaton (also Md.), which is one of the longest single-span escalators in the world.
Unlike profit-making businesses, government has little incentive to spend money on capital maintenance (no pun intended — though, I have to admit, it’s a pretty good one). This escalator collapse will result in a flurry of high-profile, covered-on-TV maintenance “remediation” projects, but soon all will be as it was before.
Politicians and bureaucrats are rewarded for giving money away for big, shiny new projects. Taking care of yesterday’s news by maintaining the likes of escalators (and buses) doesn’t get them face time on the news.
We like to think that government will maintain its plant out of pride and common sense if nothing else. How foolish of us.
Craigh,
I liken this political tactic to attack adds. We all say we don’t like them, but their continued use is based off of data that shows they work. We can blame the politicians all we like, but the fact is the electorate responds better to the shinny new projects and not so much to upkeep. It’s our fault as much as it is theirs. We expect our leaders to be heros for the high profile cause. We’re suckers for the gloss.
I’m speaking of the proverbial “we” and not necessarily the commenters on this blog.
It will be interesting to hear their case. From past experience, they won’t get the funds but it is compelling posturing, surely.
DS
Because TriMet, the city’s transit agency, is required to spend 1-1/2 percent of construction funds on art, it is considering putting grooves in the pavement so that bicycles using it will sing the Simon & Garfunkel song, “Feelin’ Groovy.â€
Reality or The Onion. This one’s got “Portlandia” written all over it. Bicycle rights!
I wonder if there is a high speed rail project anywhere in the U.S. that would pencil out. As I see it, it would have to meet the following standards:
No significant terrain along the route to increase costs (this x’es out California with its mountains, Florida with its swamps, and any place with too many rivers requiring expensive bridges).
The right distance, which I see is 200-400 miles (any less is a relatively convenient car ride, any more is a much faster plane ride, even with the need for ground transport from the terminal).
Not a lot of developed areas to plow through.
Significant population hubs at both ends, but not many places to stop in between.
I don’t think there is any place in the U.S. that meets these criteria. Maybe Dallas-Houston-San Antonio triangle.