Posted on 07/09/2008 6:43:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed his support behind a costly high-speed rail system in California.
Schwarzenegger told NBC11 he wants California to lead the way in transporting commuters across the state at near-record speeds while reducing global warming at the same time.
Critics have said the state's proposed high-speed rail system is too costly and too good to be true, NBC11's Mike Luery reported.
On the very spot where the Transcontinental Railroad was established nearly 140 years ago, Schwarzenegger told Luery that a less-than-three-hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles represents the type of progress that can take place in the Golden State.
"I think we need high speed rail," Schwarzenegger said. "If you think right now our trains in America are running the same speed as 100 years ago. That's not progress. I think we can do much better than that."
Under the state's high-speed rail plan, trains will travel at 225 mph.
At first they will travel from The Bay Area to Burbank, and then eventually from San Diego to Sacramento. The ticket might cost about $50.
Part of the goal is to reduce the state's carbon footprint by taking cars off the road.
However, voters must approve $10 billion Proposition 1 this fall.
Even Schwarzenegger admits the proposal would only pay for about one quarter of the cost of the entire train system. That is why opponents are determined to see it stopped dead in its tracks.
"It just doesn't pencil out," said state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks. "It's $40 billion just in construction. That's more than $1,000 for every man, woman and child in this state -- all for a train that will go from L.A. to San Francisco in about two hours longer than it takes to fly there."
McClintock called the system a boondoggle and said that the money would be better spent improving California's highways.
It needs funding. Rail costs a lot. In Phoenix, the light rail costs upwards of $100 million per mile. See Coyote Blog at http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2008/07/100-million-a-m.html
Environmental legislation. Yeah, it's sort of funny that environmentalists got all these enviro laws passed, and they also advocate high speed rail. Problem is, high speed rail must get environmental impact statement clearances. These take longer to get than taking Amtrak coast to coast.
Take the South East High Speed Rail Corridor. It is going to gets its environmental impact statement completed in mid 2011. Now, you might say to yourself, that's only three years away. That's long, but it's not outrageous.
Yeah, except that the SEHSR Corridor was conceived in 1992 as this page points out.
In 1999, as the web page describes, "North Carolina and Virginia began a Tier I Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the SEHSR from Washington, DC to Charlotte, NC. This corridor level document examined nine alternatives."
So the EIS takes from 1999 to 2011. And it takes seven years from the time that the DOT and a four state coalition was put together to get the RR going.
Passenger service is slated to begin sometime between 2015 and 2020.
So let me get this straight. We aren't supposed to drill for oil because it might take 10 years, but we can wait 23 to 28 years for high speed rail?
Arnold really is a MORON. A true Bloomberg Republican.
The trouble with political savvy is that many are too lazy to understand the process.
In this case the Senator understands that to get the funding and the permissions, the state needs the cooperation of the many legislators in the Great Central Valley. They won't sign unless there is a stop in their district.
The bullet train now becomes a local commuter which reaches its top speed for a few minutes between obligatory, political stops. The 3 hour trip now becomes 7 hours, most spent trying to get the train out the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley after the obligatory stop at a significant Kern County population center.
A high speed train from Sacramento to San Diego for 50 bucks? Will the passengers be expected to peddle?
Expect the Ca. taxpayers to get railroaded on this boondoggle idea. Looking to the state of Michigan for inspirational ideas there Arrrrrrnold?
We’re broke, so let’s spend some more! Lefties soiling their own nest. Trashing their state, then running away to mine and other states, spreading the disease. Sick sons o’ *bleep*s!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Environmental legislation? If the going gets too tough, they’ll exempt themselves.
Financing High-Speed Trains with Public-Private Partnerships (PDF)
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And if you add in al the waste, fraud, and incompetence that comes with any government project, the true total should come around to 280 billion.
Which is exactly what they want to do. They are proposing a "public private partnership," which will allow a private enterprise to have not only taxpayer money to finance their boondoggle but the power of eminent domain and taxation to make it profitable. Environmental laws will be waived for only the special interests, prohibiting market forces from entering into the equation. When all is said and done, the private enterprise will take their guaranteed profits and compensation and we will have another losing project, used by low-income Californians, subsidized by billions of taxpayer dollars.
Build more roads you jackass.
TRAINS ARE NOT THE ANSWER!
They steal the gax tax funds to build mass transit, and our highways remain 1960s versions of what we need in 2010.
We got no money for highways, ya.
Gov. Schwarzenegger Throws Support Behind High-Speed RailHe might as well. He already threw his supporters in front of a high-speed train.
The San Diego train museum has a replica of this Tehachapi Loop, as they call it. It's big, curvy, and to scale. Plus, it has all kinds of little trains running on it....
There is some info on the proposed route, here:
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/map.htm
If you click on the photos (that are also streaming), you can find where they are also proposing a tunnel, windfarms, and of course big-time development projects along the route. Developers have been salivating over this one for a while now.
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