Posted on 05/09/2011 12:12:04 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
After lobbying federal officials hard and long for $270 million for the Springfield-to-New Haven high-speed rail project, Connecticut landed just $30 million Monday.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the distribution of $2 billion for fast train projects, and Connecticut was counting on a hefty share.
Despite earlier signals from LaHood that Connecticut and the rest of the Northeast stood a solid chance, he ended up giving more than half the money to projects in the Midwest and California.
Despite heavy traffic congestion and dense population, Connecticut got less than 2 percent of the funding.
"Any money for high-speed rail is good, but I'm disappointed, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said by phone Monday morning. "This isn't as much as we deserve and need. I can tell you I'll continue working for other money for this."
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
The stupid thing about this is you can only get up to speeds like that if you take Acela and it’s expensive as hell.
The other amusing thing is that Conrail runs the lines in MA and I was told that they limit the speeds to 50mph. I don’t know if Acela is exempt from that or not.
Any money for high-speed rail is wasted. If we build 90% of the track, the best use of that last 10% is to give it back to the taxpayers and not spend it on rail. This is a huge waste of money that will cost more to run than it is worth even if we could get it for free.
What am I missing?
You're thinking of Delaware. I believe CT has 5 Reps.
Joe Biden took it every day...it must be affordable! He wouldn't stick the taxpayer with hundreds of dollars a day on commuting costs, would he?
More than $400 million will go toward a Chicago-Detroit connection and $300 million is directed at advancing the San Francisco-Los Angeles line.
I believe you mean CSX. Conrail hasn't been around for a while.
I don’t know if Acela is exempt from that or not.
Acela trains only run on the Boston-New York-DC line, which is a dedicated to Amtrak. There's no way to run an Acela train at full speed on a freight line.
Connecticut is one of the richest, one of the heaviest taxed and one of the most densely populated states in the country. If they cannot come up with their own money to make high speed rail work here, just where is it going to work?
30 Million?
Heck, that isn’t enough to even pay for the graft and local payoffs to build a single train station along the rail line.
High spend rail for a 60 mile run.
30 Million US taxpayer dollars.
$2 Million per mile.
And still they press on to build more projects like this.
They’ll take the 30 and say, “Hell, it ain’t enough ... may as well build a new race track (or something)”
We got more rail money here in Michigan too. Pretty stupid considering that it can’t even leave the state since Ohio and Indiana have said “no thanks” to high speed rail.
If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Time was when you didn’t have to say something so obvious to adults.
The Slow speed rail that Doyle was planning to build in WI from Madison to Milwaukee was going to cost $65 one way. The Badger Bus between the two cities costs $35 round trip. Let me see, which one will I choose?
Gov Snyder of Michigan has rejected High Speed Rail funding. That won’t happen.
That's just to cover the necessary bribes and payoffs. More will be sent later. Its the CHICAGO way.
$30 million doesn’t buy a lot of track, but it buys a lot of votes. Democrats - using your money for their benefit.
Dense population! I've been to CT. This is SO true.
CT should just borrow the money from a bank. They can then repay the loan from the revenues generated by the project. If they are not going to make a return, they should not build the project.
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