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Dodging bullet train best for California
The Orange County Register ^ | 3-18-2012 | Mark Landsbaum

Posted on 03/18/2012 12:34:55 AM PDT by Mark Landsbaum

Let's stipulate that high-speed trains might be worthwhile. Sometimes. In some places.

Now let's make this perfectly clear: California in the foreseeable future is neither the time nor the place.

A high-speed rail system for California would be like a canoe concession in Saudi Arabia. Unneeded. Unprofitable. Just plain stupid.

So, why do so many clamor for just such an unneeded, unprofitable, stupid idea? . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics; Travel
KEYWORDS: boondoggles; california; cronycapitalismm; deficits; highspeedrail

1 posted on 03/18/2012 12:35:02 AM PDT by Mark Landsbaum
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To: Mark Landsbaum

I didn’t click the link to your article, Mark, but no doubt you know the oh-so-PC reasons why Gov. Moonbeam & Co. push for such expensive nonsense.

I spent many years in CA and loved it; the land, scenery, things to do....such a gorgeous and unique state.

I’d also never go back to live there, and that has 100% to do with the idiots in the legislature in Sacramento, the Democratic Party, and liberal filth in the Bay Area and the LA regions. They’ve ruined paradise.


2 posted on 03/18/2012 2:36:30 AM PDT by RightOnline (I am Andrew Breitbart!)
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To: Mark Landsbaum

Timely article for me. I just talked about high speed rail yesterday with some folks who were unaware of what was going on in CA. This is a budget buster for sure, at a time when just meeting the demands of state payroll, retirement obligations, and the monthly utilities with real money, not borrowed money is in question.

Not to mention the usual smoke and mirrors accounting tricks to make state budgets look balanced, when in reality in many cases especially at the Federal level, they are using borrowed dollars, to float the boat. If States are accepting federal dollars are they getting the real money or the deficit dollars to spend? Either way they become part of the problem, not the solution.


3 posted on 03/18/2012 2:42:04 AM PDT by wita
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To: Mark Landsbaum
HIGH-SPEED TRAIN_2
4 posted on 03/18/2012 2:55:59 AM PDT by BobP (The piss-stream media - Never to be watched again in my house)
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To: Mark Landsbaum
It certainly will cost much more than the estimated $98 billion to $117 billion its backers estimate. We know this
because the same backers estimated only four years ago it would cost a mere $33 billion.

•It doesn't stand a chance of coming up with the missing tens of billions of dollars needed to fill the gap between the
$9.9 billion in bonds voters approved and $3 billion President Obama doled out and its final, astronomical cost.

Simple math for the simple minded. It just does not compute!
IMO taking the train from HB to San Fran is a lovely idea. Comfortable, scenic, somewhat relaxing.
But there is no way on G-ds' Green Earth that the passenger load would come even close to meeting the operating costs.
Its a friggin boon-doggle from the git go.

5 posted on 03/18/2012 3:49:52 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum)
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To: Mark Landsbaum
The once-Golden State with the world's 7th largest economy can no longer afford such things.

Guess why?

6 posted on 03/18/2012 5:26:21 AM PDT by Savage Beast ("When even casual sex requires a state welfare program, you're pretty much done for." ~Mark Steyn)
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To: RightOnline

Wife and I were in San Diego for a week earlier this month.
Looked good, but we can’t afford it.


7 posted on 03/18/2012 5:46:13 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Beware the Sweater Vest)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Oceanside and Chula Vista lowest prices on the coast.

Let me know if you want more info.


8 posted on 03/18/2012 5:51:55 AM PDT by morphing libertarian
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To: Mark Landsbaum

After billions are spent constructing it, One shaker could wipe out the whole thing.


9 posted on 03/18/2012 6:24:27 AM PDT by chainsaw (Sarah Palin is still my first choice to save the USA. . .)
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To: Tainan
"the passenger load would come even close to meeting the operating costs. "

Does ANY 'Light Rail', 'Rapid Transit' 'Urban Trolley' or whatever it is called, pay for itself? They are all built or rebuilt with glowing accounts of how they will 'improve xxxxx' or 'reduce congestion on the yyyyy' or 'speed journey times between aaaaa and bbbbb' but they never do.

Can anyone give a POSITIVE example of one of these lunacies?

10 posted on 03/18/2012 6:55:32 AM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
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To: I am Richard Brandon
No. but it doesn’t matter. It's a key part of the Agenda 21 plan. Eradicate the rural population. Create stack and pack walkable communities in close proximity to rail transportation. Eliminate as much as possible motorized transportation.
11 posted on 03/18/2012 7:24:36 AM PDT by Captain7seas (FIRE JANE LUBCHENCO FROM NOAA)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Beautiful city.....and yes, damned expensive. Also, way too close to the Mexican border for my liking.


12 posted on 03/18/2012 7:33:10 AM PDT by RightOnline (I am Andrew Breitbart!)
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To: Tainan

Yes, they are going to force people to use the train and pay the gas for the Unions, the government and the train to run the train.

California is going to be a communist country of its own.


13 posted on 03/18/2012 7:48:04 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: Captain7seas

If Wal Mart does not buy it, I do not buy it. England has this deal where you put your car on rails but we know what kind of nightmare of unreliability England’s rail is. And, as far as German rail goes, it is maintained by the age old German trade cities complex. Germans have the autobahn and import nuke electricity from France anyways.


14 posted on 03/18/2012 7:57:07 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: Mark Landsbaum

This smells so much like boondoggle corruption scandal to come indeed... OMG. Not again.


15 posted on 03/18/2012 7:58:56 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: I am Richard Brandon

Yes, two - NYC and Tokyo. Neither city could function without them.

But, note that both have population densities thru the roof.

CA does not.


16 posted on 03/18/2012 7:59:12 AM PDT by patton (DateDiff)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Mark Landsbaum.


17 posted on 03/18/2012 9:52:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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