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Yes, Let's Get Real on California High Speed Rail!
Midwest High Speeed Rail Association ^ | 13 February 2019

Posted on 02/14/2019 11:35:52 AM PST by Publius

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My colleagues in the passenger rail game appear to have gone off the rails.

This is the kind of spin I would expect from state-controlled media organs like Pravda, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

"We have always been at war with Eastasia…"

I sense the smell of desperation in the air.

1 posted on 02/14/2019 11:35:52 AM PST by Publius
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To: Publius

Because you just can’t get to Merced fast enough...


2 posted on 02/14/2019 11:37:22 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Publius
By now this is required:


3 posted on 02/14/2019 11:38:38 AM PST by freedumb2003 (As always IMHO)
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To: Publius

Willie Green, is that you?


4 posted on 02/14/2019 11:38:48 AM PST by Poison Pill
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To: Poison Pill

Don’t be silly.


5 posted on 02/14/2019 11:39:22 AM PST by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill & Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

Had the idiots in California and in Texas simply allowed the original private consortiums to build high speed rail with private funds then both projects would now be up and running and (GASP!) they’d probably also be profitable.

Instead both states have proven the Reagan Axiom that if it moves tax it, if it stops moving subsidize it.


6 posted on 02/14/2019 11:44:33 AM PST by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: MeganC; Army Air Corps

Ping :)


7 posted on 02/14/2019 11:47:06 AM PST by KC_Lion (If you want on First Lady Melania's, Ivanka Trump's or Sarah Palin's Ping Lists, just let me know.)
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To: Publius
As I've written previously, the cost estimate for this entire project was about $77 billion.

Round-trip airfare between SBO and LAX is $200.

There are about 3.66 million passengers annually between SBO and LAX per wikipedia. Assuming they're all round-trip passengers, that comes to $732 million in annual revenue generated by this route.

Assuming no inflation, and assuming all that air traffic would opt to take the high-speed rail line at the same price point (a truly heroic assumption), it would take about 100 years to break even on this boondoggle. This excludes the costs/unemployment etc. associated with zero airline traffic.


8 posted on 02/14/2019 11:47:31 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2))
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To: Publius

Article doesn’t appear to address profitability.


9 posted on 02/14/2019 11:49:47 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Profitability was never an issue. The primary purpose of the line was to provide a public service, which meant that it didn’t need to be profitable due to the fact that it would always be supported by a state subsidy.


10 posted on 02/14/2019 11:51:05 AM PST by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill & Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

in other words, wormy little Newsom is looking for a reason, any reason, to keep the fed grant instead of returning it to the Treasury. So a 1/2B link becomes $3.6 B overnight. The consultants and experts and assorted other ‘special interests’ must be delighted the cash cow can still be milked.

Except Newsom forgot - that debt can be deducted from any disaster relief requested.


11 posted on 02/14/2019 11:53:39 AM PST by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: Publius

A short tune comes to mind: “Look for the Union label”


12 posted on 02/14/2019 11:53:54 AM PST by Mark (Celebrities... is there anything they do not know? -Homer Simpson)
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To: DoodleBob

SBO or SFO?
Is this train intended to be express only between SBO|SFO and LAX?


13 posted on 02/14/2019 11:54:11 AM PST by posterchild (anti-science: thinking a fetus is distinct from a tumor and sex is determined by chromosomes)
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To: posterchild

No, there would have been intermediate stops.


14 posted on 02/14/2019 11:57:27 AM PST by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill & Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: blueplum

I suspect the $3.5 billion federal grant issue will eventually be adjudicated when Trump demands a refund.


15 posted on 02/14/2019 11:58:19 AM PST by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill & Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: KC_Lion

Thank you, Tom!!!


16 posted on 02/14/2019 12:03:29 PM PST by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: Publius

Then a comparison with just the endpoint travel misses most of the market. I would expect most of the end to end travel will be by air and the vast majority of the riders would be going only a portion of the run.


17 posted on 02/14/2019 12:04:37 PM PST by posterchild (anti-science: thinking a fetus is distinct from a tumor and sex is determined by chromosomes)
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To: Publius

Bakersfield to Merced? Guess you need high speed rail to move all the legal farm workers around. Stupid.


18 posted on 02/14/2019 12:07:30 PM PST by Captain Compassion (I'm just sayin')
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To: MeganC

“then both projects would now be up and running and (GASP!) they’d probably also be profitable.”

Florida allows citizens to submit ballot issues to include in the constitution. As a result we have in the constitution that the state must build high speed rail from Miami to Orlando. It has been about ten years and not one word has been said. The problem is, you need a car to get around either city. It does no good to arrive anywhere in either city and not be able to get around. Once you pay the ticket price and rent a car, any savings of getting there at 200 miles per hour is overcome by the cost of just moving around once you get there. This is because neither city has much of a people mover system to handle the traffic. Nor is going anywhere by bus in an American city a nice experience. Getting on and off and probably even on the bus you’d have to deal with the homeless, panhandlers and druggies. Then, there would be the odd “knockout” game player.

No one would ride from those two undesirable California locations, and, if they did, how would they get around once they arrived?


19 posted on 02/14/2019 12:08:16 PM PST by Gen.Blather
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To: Publius

You could have a real rail rally!!!


20 posted on 02/14/2019 12:17:19 PM PST by DannyTN
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