The High Speed Train Dream and Vision for the Future Has Come Off the Track
Have we completely overplayed the socialist utopian dream of high speed rail here in the USA? The reason I ask, as un-politically correct as such an inquiry might be, is that we've spent huge amounts of money planning high speed rail to nowhere.
Take the California high speed rail initiative if you will.
They've practically spent a billion dollars having get-togethers, symposiums and studying the technology.
They've spent huge amounts in legal fees trying to get permission, file imminent domain actions, and telling farmers in the Central Valley who've lived there since the Smith Family brought in water, that a high speed train is going to cut through their properties and they'll have to deal with it, perhaps by driving 10-miles to cross a bridge and back with their farm equipment.
The Great State of Florida had already looked a high speed rail from Miami to Orlando to Jacksonville or Tampa and decided it didn't make any sense, this was during the Bush Administration.
That's interesting because it is flat, and long distances in between.
So if it didn't make sense there, it surely doesn't make sense to take a high speed train through Los Angeles suburbs, through mountains, to Sacramento and San Francisco.
You can already fly to those places for around $125.
Still, how did we find $30 Billion in Federal Monies and $10 Billion at the California State level to do this at a time when both are in debt and have annual budget deficits, and neither can pass a balanced budget or any budget on time to save their butts? Well, it happened because big dreaming politicians wanted to do something big, to compete with other nations for the fastest rail lines.
In August of 2010 Ray LaHood of the Department of Transportation stated that in 25-years over 85% of the nation's cities would be connected to high speed rail.
What sounded like a utopian world filled with hope and chain now sounds rather ridiculous.
On September 13, 2013 the Wall Street Journal had an article that illustrated this fading of this dream; "States Face Decision Day on Saving Trains - Federal Subsidies to Short Haul Amtrak Routes End October 1, 2013 - Indiana Weighs $3 Million Annual Cost of Service to Chicago," by Josh Mitchell.
One could ask a very simple question when it comes to fast train service like Amtrak; why don't we let the market place decide.
Raise the price, privatize Amtrak and see if humans still want to pay the cost, if so, it survives, if not it fails.
Something better takes its place.
Consider the admitted crazy idea of Elon Musk's "Hyperloop" a concept which makes loads more sense than these high speed rail initiatives that will not even pay for themselves and will take people to places other than their intended destinations.
Please consider all this and think on it.
Take the California high speed rail initiative if you will.
They've practically spent a billion dollars having get-togethers, symposiums and studying the technology.
They've spent huge amounts in legal fees trying to get permission, file imminent domain actions, and telling farmers in the Central Valley who've lived there since the Smith Family brought in water, that a high speed train is going to cut through their properties and they'll have to deal with it, perhaps by driving 10-miles to cross a bridge and back with their farm equipment.
The Great State of Florida had already looked a high speed rail from Miami to Orlando to Jacksonville or Tampa and decided it didn't make any sense, this was during the Bush Administration.
That's interesting because it is flat, and long distances in between.
So if it didn't make sense there, it surely doesn't make sense to take a high speed train through Los Angeles suburbs, through mountains, to Sacramento and San Francisco.
You can already fly to those places for around $125.
Still, how did we find $30 Billion in Federal Monies and $10 Billion at the California State level to do this at a time when both are in debt and have annual budget deficits, and neither can pass a balanced budget or any budget on time to save their butts? Well, it happened because big dreaming politicians wanted to do something big, to compete with other nations for the fastest rail lines.
In August of 2010 Ray LaHood of the Department of Transportation stated that in 25-years over 85% of the nation's cities would be connected to high speed rail.
What sounded like a utopian world filled with hope and chain now sounds rather ridiculous.
On September 13, 2013 the Wall Street Journal had an article that illustrated this fading of this dream; "States Face Decision Day on Saving Trains - Federal Subsidies to Short Haul Amtrak Routes End October 1, 2013 - Indiana Weighs $3 Million Annual Cost of Service to Chicago," by Josh Mitchell.
One could ask a very simple question when it comes to fast train service like Amtrak; why don't we let the market place decide.
Raise the price, privatize Amtrak and see if humans still want to pay the cost, if so, it survives, if not it fails.
Something better takes its place.
Consider the admitted crazy idea of Elon Musk's "Hyperloop" a concept which makes loads more sense than these high speed rail initiatives that will not even pay for themselves and will take people to places other than their intended destinations.
Please consider all this and think on it.
