CNN Not Impressed with Vermont’s “High-Speed Rail”
Vermont officials are proud that a federal high-speed rail grant allowed them to take 29 minutes of the Vermonter schedule between New York City and Burlington. This is quite a bit less impressive than it sounds, as the speeded-up train still takes 9.5 hours for an average speed of 38 mph. By comparison, Megabus does […]
Taken for a Ride
Here is a 20-minute news report on the California high-speed rail project in four parts. I can think of several lessons people should learn from this fiasco. First, don’t vote to partly fund a project. The government agency in charge will spend all of the money even if there is no chance to get the […]
Will They Ever Learn?
Arizona Shuttle offers 19 buses a day between Tucson and Phoenix. Greyhound offers at least eight. But that’s not good enough for some people, so the state is spending $6.3 million studying the idea of running passenger trains between the two cities. The state’s first guess is that the start-up cost would be a mere […]
Bloomberg: Taxpayers Gouged by Transit
Bloomberg News, or at least a writer named Stephen Smith, has discovered that the transit industry is gouging taxpayers with its schemes for high-cost rail transit and high-speed rail. Smith says there are two causes for this gouging. First, “agencies can’t keep their private contractors in check,” and instead hire “consultants who consultant with consultants […]
Because $117 Billion Wasn’t Expensive Enough
In 2010, Amtrak proposed to spend $117 billion to upgrade its Boston-to-Washington high-speed rail corridor. This idea was so unrealistically expensive that the Antiplanner called it “gold-plated high-speed rail.” Apparently, Amtrak wants platinum plating instead, as its 2012 update to the proposal has raised the cost to $151 billion. This includes some additional bells and […]
California Rail Follies
The California legislature based its approval of the sale of billions of dollars of bonds to start construction of high-speed rail partly on claims that the rail line would help revitalize California’s economy. But now a study from UCLA finds that Japan’s high-speed rail line, one of the most popular in the world, failed to […]
California Itching to Lose a Decade
Last week, the California legislature voted to destroy the state’s economy for another decade. The 21 senators who voted for the measure told the public they were approving a high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but everyone knows they barely have enough money to build from Fresno to Bakersfield. In voting to borrow […]
Clinically Dead
California’s high-speed rail project seems to be dead. At least, that’s the conclusion of a Washington DC writer commenting on a report that Governor Brown has given up on the idea of exempting high-speed rail from environmental reviews. Without that exemption, the writer thinks, the state will never be able to build the line. However, […]
Antiques or Obsolete?
Someone made a little poster designed to convey the value of high-speed rail. I made a couple of modifications that I think improve it quite a bit.
CNN Does a Number on HSR Numbers
CNN reports that the cost of California high-speed rail has tripled, and it correctly points out that federal taxpayers will be expected to pay for most of it. While this is a somewhat belated report, it is nice to see this boondoggle get the attention it deserves. CNN gets some numbers wrong; as the Antiplanner […]
California Is Dying
The Obama administration has announced that it wants to spend a half-billion dollars buying high-speed rail cars in an obvious bid to create more businesses beholden to the administration as well as to its rail program. But more and more people are turning against the president’s dream of being the Eisenhower of high-speed rail. The […]
Obama Plays Hardball with California
The Obama administration is threatening to take back the $3.3 billion high-speed rail grant to California if the state legislature fails to approve the state’s high-speed rail plan by the end of June. Legislators had planned to hold some hearings this summer so they could base their decisions on actual facts rather than politics. Ironically, […]
