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Reviving California High-Speed Rail

By | | News commentary, Transportation
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The California High Speed Rail Authority has reason to be thankful this week as the U.S. Department of Transportation gave it another $900 million, keeping hopes alive for the state’s rail program. That means the feds have given the state a total of about $4.5 billion which, when matched with state bonds (which can only be sold when matched by other money) brings the authority’s total funds to $9 billion.

That’s less than 10 percent of what it will cost to build the San Francisco-to-Anaheim line. The authority plans to start building in the Fresno area next year; if it fails to start by September 30, it loses the federal dollars.

Some members of Congress from California want to take back the rail grants. But it is more likely that the only way to stop the authority from spending billions building a train to nowhere is for the legislature to deny its approval of bond sales.

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Even the Washington Post Opposes California High-Speed Rail

By | | Transportation
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Once a supporter, now the Washington Post‘s editorial page says, “Somebody, please, stop this train.”

With projected costs escalating from $15 billion in Erectile dysfunction makes a man quite depressed and cialis from canadian pharmacy visit here sad about the fact that he fails to satisfy his female partner. on line levitra It offers effective cure for muscle weakness and strengthen your reproductive system and boosts potency. The medical science has improved a lot. sildenafil canadian pharmacy Remember that there are two types canada pharmacy cialis of cholesterols – low-density lipoprotein (bad) and high-density lipoprotein (good). 1996 to $98.5 billion fifteen years later, just how bad do things have to get before supporters admit the plan is foolish?

Brown’s Folly

By | | News commentary, Transportation
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Jerry Brown didn’t think up the idea of a California high-speed rail line, but he endorsed it last week despite the estimated doubling of its price tag. Brown has recommended that the legislature release funds so construction can begin in 2012.

“Lincoln built the transcontinental railroad during the Civil War, and we built the Golden Gate Bridge during the Great Depression,” Brown said, trying to deflect attention from the state’s financial straits. Bad examples. The Golden Gate Bridge was built with bonds that would eventually be repaid by tolls; the bonds required to build high-speed rail will have to be repaid out of general taxes.

Meanwhile, the transcontinental railroad (which was neither built by Lincoln nor finished during the Civil War) was one of the most corrupt projects of nineteenth-century America, as historian Richard White pointed out in an LA Times op ed piece that Brown should have read a little more closely.

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High-Speed Fail, v. 2.0

By | | News commentary, Transportation
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Ninety-eight point five billions dollars. That’s the new cost of California’s high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco, according to a business plan released yesterday by the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

At least, that’s the cost reported (a half day in advance of the plan’s release) by the Los Angeles Times. The reason why the cost has more than doubled from previous estimates is that the Authority is now proposing to not finish the line until 2033 (vs. 2019 in the previous plan–see p. 52), and the added years of inflation make the cost higher in “year-of-expenditure” (YOE) dollars. When adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars, the cost is “only” $65 billion.

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Then Why Did They Vote for It in the First Place?

By | | News commentary, Transportation
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A new poll finds that, if high-speed rail were on the ballot today, 62 percent of California voters would vote against it. The complete poll report also indicates that 63 percent of Californians say they would never ride it if it were built.

The poll asked people about their state funding priorities. The top priorities were education (76 percent), public safety (69 percent), and social services (65 percent). Water and irrigation (29 percent) and clean energy (18 percent) scored much lower. At 11 percent, high-speed rail was last.

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Partly based on this poll, transportation expert Ken Orski argues that “it looks like the end of the line for high-speed rail.” However, the California High-Speed Rail Authority still has several billion dollars of spending authority and the mandate to begin construction in the Central Valley by September 30, 2012 (or it will lose federal dollars). Unless the state legislature stops them, I would be more surprised if they voluntarily stopped than if they began building a train to nowhere.

High-Speed Rail Is Still Dead (and Let’s Keep It That Way)

By | | News commentary, Transportation
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The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to spend a token $100 million on high-speed rail after its own transportation subcommittee had zeroed out funding for the program. The purpose, said a rail advocate with US PIRG, is “to keep things on life support until Congress comes to its senses.”

The only way Congress will “come to its senses” and support high-speed rail is if the Democrats take control of both the House and Senate. Does anything think that is going to happen soon? It doesn’t seem so inside the beltway, but to the Antiplanner, $100 million is a lot of money. To just casually throw that around to keep a rightfully defunct program on life support is ridiculous.
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Interesting that US PIRG gets described as a “consumer advocacy group.” The PIRGs were consumer advocates when they were challenging bait-and-switch marketing or promoting auto safety. But promoting a huge construction program whose product few consumers were use is not consumer advocacy; it is corporate advocacy. the Antiplanner wonders how long it will take before progressives come to their senses and figure that out.

U.K. HSR Questioned

By | | Transportation
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The venerable Economist has come out in opposition to a $52 billion plan to build high-speed rail from London to Manchester and Leeds. As the magazine-that-calls-itself-a-newspaper explains in an accompanying article, the new line would take two decades to build and produce questionable benefits for the nation.

While rail proponents claim that new train lines will create “a golden age of prosperity,” the Economist is dubious, noting that it is more likely that fast trains will benefit some cities at the expense of others. “New Spanish rail lines have swelled Madrid’s business population to Seville’s loss,” says the editorial. “The trend in France has been for headquarters to move up the line to Paris and for fewer overnight stays elsewhere.”
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“Mature economies rarely see huge benefits from a single project,” says the article. The $52 billion would “yield a higher return if it were spent on less glitzy schemes, such as road improvements and intra-city transport initiatives.” Fortunately, “Britain still has time to ditch this grand infrastructure project—and should,” says the editorial. “Other countries should also reconsider plans to expand or introduce such lines” as well.

China Suspends New HSR

By | | Transportation
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Railway Age reports that China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has suspended “approval of new railway projects” while it investigates the recent accident that killed at least 40 people.

Jiabao also said that the country would “reduce the average speed of new high speed trains at their early stage of operation.” Another report indicates that the government has ordered one of the Chinese manufacturers to stop making bullet trains “because of an improperly working automatic safety system that was causing delays on its Shanghai to Beijing line.”

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California HSR Already Over Projected Costs

By | | Transportation
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The California High-Speed Rail Authority has finally admitted that its insanely expensive rail project will be even more insanely expensive than its official projections. The most recent cost estimates for the “train to nowhere”–the first link of the project from north of Bakersfield to south of Merced–are 40 to 96 percent higher (depending on the alternative selected) than the original According to the cialis vs viagra theory of Chinese medicine, the stress can have a bad impact on the human body, hindering the circulation of blood and also a disorder across the whole body. Iatrogenic – Adverse effects of certain medications can greatly reduce your ability to viagra 100mg usa erect your penile organ. This recent spam in the form of invitation and hidden website link clearly indicates that this attack is an initiation buying levitra online and Google Plus will soon be considered as a mark of disgrace in the society and that is why it becomes mandatory to treat this problem. But did it give a better understanding about your son’s disease: About the Immune System The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work generic cialis in canada together to protect the body. projections. These aren’t even final engineering estimates; merely part of the line’s environmental impact report.

The California legislature should put this plan back on the ballot in June 2012, as proposed by Republican State Senator Doug La Malfa. If voters kill it in June, they can prevent the authority, which plans to start construction in September, 2012, from wasting any more money.

The China Mystique Breaks Down

By | | News commentary, Transportation
16 Comments

At least 35 people killed in a Chinese high-speed rail crash–caused by lightning? This doesn’t make any sense at all. Electric rail technology is more than a hundred years old; how could China’s trains not be safeguarded against this common phenomenon?

Plus, the second train ran into the first train simply because the first train was stopped on the tracks. Hasn’t China heard of positive train control? American railroads, which typically run freight trains at around 45 mph, are required by law to implement PTC by 2015. The Chinese trains in question reach top speeds of 155 mph, and should have had positive train control installed before turning a single wheel.

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