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.
Or is it “a negative balance sheet”?
The theme in US politics 2008 seems to be:
“Shut up and pay peasant, we know what is best for you”
In 1990, the voters approved a $2 billion rail initiative that was supposed to build high speed rail between Sacramento and Oakland. It never happened.
Better yet, let the riders share the cost. If it were potentially profitable, BNSF would already have that train running. Like most of these "public transportation" boondoggles, the taxpayer takes it in the shorts so that they can discount the price enough to make it competitive with driving.
The most effective way to take "cars off the road" in California would be to deport the millions of illegals that help clog the taxpayer-funded arteries that exist already.
Build a tunnel! What the heck, they can do the whole thing as a subway, that would only cost $50 or $60 billion more. Why be cheap about it?
You nailed it! Look no further than the Big Dig in Ma.
This guy has become way more embarrassing than even Gray Davis!!!
The sad thing is that he’s apparently the most conservative governor California can elect.
Add up the costs per passenger mile. Double it at least because they always lowball the estimate to sell it to the taxpayer, and then compare it to air travel which is faster.
It’s probably technologically feasible, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense. The money would almost surely be better used, if you decided to rob taxpayer money in the first place, to subsidize air travel.
Well, I just can't buy into that. What if we'd have thought that when Ronnie decided to run against Pat Brown??? You were around here then, weren't you???
Hell, by the looks of things, Gray Davis was more conservative than this idiot!!!
Actually, I lived in California until three months before Ronald Reagan was elected President. I most definitely was there then.
I remember well how the press went nuts when, as Governor, he tossed an apple core out the window of his car as if that was littering plutonium.
The California I knew then was showing signs of becoming crazy, and the changed demographics have cemented insanity in the political landscape.
California would never elect Ronald Reagan as Governor today.
Took a crowded plane ride out to the Pacific Northwest this last weekend, and I figured something out. The biggest resistance to mass transit will be from the people who don’t want to sit near some crying, whiny spoiled brat for any length of time. That’s the deal-breaker for me.
"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
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