Now Obama Wants To Build A $5 Billion Bullet Train From Las Vegas To Nowhere

Business Insider ^ | 03/25/2012 | Michael Blood

[SeekAndFind]

VICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.

[Fiji Hill]

I propose a theme song for the project:

Train to Nowhere--the Champs

[DooDahhhh]

What do you really think. I am with you!

[Eva]

Apparently, the money for the train to Vegas was not specifically spelled out in he stimulus bill, but instead was left open for competitive projects, much like the transportation grant and reinvestment act that Patty Murray proposed for a coal terminal in WA State, for the company that employs her husband.

In a town that loves to connect the dots, the funding increase raised suspicions that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who played a key role in writing the bill, pushed for it in order to promote home-state interests, namely the Anaheim-to-Las Vegas project.

"Tell me how spending $8billion in this bill to have a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is going to help the construction worker in my district," House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said as he and all his fellow Republicans voted against the stimulus. Republicans cited the rail project in accusing Democrats of breaking their word to keep the bill free of pet projects.

A Reid spokesman said the money was not being earmarked for any specific project but would be available on a competitive basis. "This was a major priority for President [Barack] Obama, and Sen. Reid as a conferee supported it," said Jon Summers.

"It's not just specifically for us," said Bruce Aguilera, chairman of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, which plans to seek funding for the $12 billion to $14 billion project.

Proposals for magnetic levitation trains that could travel 300 m.p.h. and whisk passengers between Anaheim and Las Vegas in 86 minutes have been floated for decades as a way to ease traffic on Interstate Highway 15 and reduce pollution -- and, of course, help the Las Vegas economy. The project's boosters hope the stimulus money will help get it moving.

A number of high-speed rail projects have been proposed nationwide and are expected to compete for funds.

[boop]

Wait, so you have to drive to Victorville, in the middle of the desert, to hop a train to Vegas? Who the F would do that? Why would they do that? What happens to your unattended car, roasting in the desert while you're in Vegas WITHOUT YOUR CAR?

Do there exist people so incredibly stupid that think this is a good idea?

[hinckley buzzard]

One of these years Miami is going to have casinoes, and on the water. That will sink LasVegas, because everyone east of the Rockies will prefer to go to Miami instead of out to the middle of the desert.

[citizen]

You are a great poster. However, a request: Longer excerpts, please.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“So what happens when ‘The BIg One’ hits California?”

Once global warming is fixed, there will be no need to worry about earthquakes. /sarc

[SeekAndFind]

RE: You are a great poster. However, a request: Longer excerpts, please.

My original post was quite long and within the 300 word limit. However, the moderators CUT IT EVEN FURTHER because apparently, AP stories should be excerpted even shorter.

[quantim]

That’s fine...as long as he’s on it.

[Sherman Logan]

High-speed rail might make economic sense in the NE corridor, Boston to Washington, the only part of the US where population density resembles Japan or parts of Europe.

But not anywhere else in this country. One that was recently proposed was Orlando to Tampa, with the claim that this would cut the trip to an hour. Just drove this today. Took 1.4 hours. At 60 mph. (I’ve slowed down to save gas. Works, too. 37 mpg in a Pontiac Vibe.)

And my understanding is that these trains even in Europe and Japan still require major subsidies from taxes.

[pankot]

If the Repubs weren’t such weenies they’d get opposition research going around the clock digging into dirty Harry’s finances from A to Z. Methinks enough there to burn him out of the Senate.

[Avid Coug]

So, how are they going to get past the greenies who sue in federal court to stop construction because the project will endanger the limited population of the Southwest Donkey-Eared Yellow Bellied Toad.

Besides that, I’m sure many Libs will be against it because “it just sends the wrong message”.

[spokeshave]

What happens to your unattended car, roasting in the desert while you're in Vegas WITHOUT YOUR CAR?

And good luck in making the trip....

Daily variations of temperature in the Mohave desert will kink the rails.

[boop]

Actually now that I looked at the map, the “high speed rail” is even STUPIDER. Amtrak already goes between SF and SD. And when it gets to the big cities it’s NOT going to be moving very fast at all. Will it run on special second tracks, along the ones that already exist in those big cities? And how many people want to go to Fresno or Bakersfield really “fast”. i.e. 80 mph? Not like they’re going to go 300mph through those small towns along the way under any circumstances.

[pogo101]

If only there were some other way, besides a bazillion-dollar train ... some EXISTING, PROVEN way, a POPULAR way, of going 80 miles per hour between Fresno and Bakersfield. You could leave whenever you wanted, go alone or with a group for the same cost, and even stop for a bite along the way.

Yeah, probably just the stuff of some faraway future world, right?

[citizen]

Ah, I see. Those darned mods! :)

Thanks for all the work you do!