Posted on 02/14/2009 9:54:01 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Speeding from Los Angeles to Las Vegas at more than 150 miles per hour by train has been talked about for more than 20 years, but it's a last-minute federal decision that might have kicked it into high gear earlier this week.
The $789 billion all-but-approved federal stimulus plan in Washington includes a late change made, according to The Associated Press, at the behest of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Funding for high-speed rail programs, which the House capped at $2 billion, was increased in the final bill to $8 billion.
Reid, the Senate majority leader, has long been a proponent of a high-speed rail line from Southern California to Las Vegas. Thursday, he said he was hopeful a good portion of the $8 billion would go to the Los Angeles-to-Vegas train, capable of making a fast dash across the High Desert of San Bernardino County.
The money would be tied to federally sponsored projects and does not make reference to the type of high-speed train. A number of proposed lines from Southern California to Las Vegas have been discussed in the past, including Maglev, which uses magnetic force to levitate the train above a guide line and a privately funded Desert Xpress train planned between Victorville and Las Vegas.
Victorville Councilman Mike Rothschild, a supporter of high-speed rails to Vegas, said the federal funds are significant.
"It'll be the beginnings of what Eisenhower did with the federal highway system," Rothschild said Friday. "... It is one thing to talk about it. It is another thing to get it rolling."
But officials acknowledge after 20 years of talking about a bullet train across the desert, some residents are jaded about the possibilities. Robert Cruickshank, a high-speed rail proponent and creator of the California High Speed Rail Blog, said growing up in Orange County he heard for years how bullet trains were coming, but to no avail.
"The difference then is there was no funding," Cruickshank said.
Although an LA-to-Vegas line is not the priority in California, Cruickshank said it should not detract from efforts to build a high-speed line from San Diego to San Francisco.
In fact, much of the $8 billion could come to the West Coast.
"Only Los Angeles to San Francisco has any funding at all," he said. "This is the only high-speed rail in the nation that has a plan and any money behind it."
A line to Vegas could act as a nice complement to a north-south train, Cruickshank said, and has merit even though it's been a topic for 20 years with little to show for it.
"Anybody who's tried to go to Vegas on a weekend in traffic knows it would be welcome," he said.
All Aboard the little Red Socialist train!
Spending and Borrowing our way to prosperity..
The DemocRats New Direction
Harry's high-speed rail job has left the station.
I hope they have good A/C onboard.
Harry doesn’t like smelly tourists, yaknow.
Closer, don’t make me laugh! The $8 billion will go to lawyers, law suites will be coming out of the woodwork!
Compounding this stupidity, you can book a trip on Southwest for at least one month in advance to fly from LAX to Vegas for $140 round trip. There's no way the train will be that cheap.
Way too much of Porkulus is just more handouts for the stupid, lazy and ignorant.
Getting the Feds more involved with the train system isn’t the best idea. Here’s how stupid they are now with Amtrak: You used to be able to take Amtrak from L.A. to Orlando. Then Katrina hit and the tracks were compromised. The tracks have been repaired for a long time now, and are being used by all other trains — but not Amtrak.
You go from L.A. to New Orleans, then TO CHICAGO, change trains, and THEN back down to Orlando. The short “chunk” from NOLA and Orlando is not available..
I called Amtrak and asked WTF? They said they’re trying to get (extort?) money from towns along the way before restoring service from NOLA and Orlando.
I figure that if the Feds can’t figure out they’ll get more paying passengers to buy trips straight through, they’re not capable of handling this transportation system. Who in his right mind would travel across the south with a detour to Chicago?
What makes you think you will be driving? Will your electric car go that far?
This will turn out like the Monorail episode of the Simpsons
The people who know how to run railroads are all in their 90s or dead. Passanger trains never made money anyway.
To bad the 8 billion dollars wasn’t for nuclear power plants ringing Yucca Mountain.
great! so i’ll be able to get from LA to Vegas or SF at high speed, but I can’t drive the 101 or 405 during rush hour because there is too much traffic, too many illegal aliens, too many car pool lanes and not enough freeway. Great way to prioritize. Who cares about the people who actually have to WORK and commute in the nightmarish LA Traffic.
If you need a laugh, look at the picture on the front page of the Orange County Register today. On second thought, it might make you puke, but give it a shot.
Not once time has the media reported that this is separate from a high speed rail a PRIVATE firm is already working on building!!!!!!!!! The private firm is DesertXpress which is privately financing a high-speed train projected to travel at 125 mph to bring passengers to Vegas in 90 minutes.. they hope to have the $3.5 billion project done by 2012.
By media I mean Fox, CNN, etc... they are so busy praising Reid’s coup.... and have not mentioned WHY it is a boondoggle.
obamas going to fix that the new stemulus deal is for a battery operated battery charger.
150 MPH from LA to Vegas? Big deal!
My Dad used to do close to that on his way to Vegas back in the early 60’s.
(57 Dodge with the D-501 police package)
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