Hair of the dog that bit you doesn't work for hang-overs of the fiscal or alcoholic sort.
Posted on 01/28/2010 9:59:53 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – High-speed rail projects in California, Florida and Illinois are among the big winners of $8 billion in grants to be announced Thursday by the White House — the start of what some Democrats tout as a national rail-building program that could rival the interstate highways begun in the Eisenhower era.
Thirteen rail corridors in 31 states received funds. The White House, which supplied a list of the grants to reporters late Wednesday, billed the program as "high-speed rail," although most U.S. projects won't reach the speeds seen in Europe and Asia. California's trains would be by far the fastest, exceeding the 200 mph achieved by some trains overseas.
Some of the money will go toward trains with top speeds of 110 mph, while other funds — such as the $400 million allotted to Ohio to connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati by rail — will be for trains traveling no faster than 79 mph.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are expected to pitch the program as a boost to the economy at a town hall meeting Thursday in Tampa, Fla.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Alllll AaaBoard!!
The oBama eXpre$$ has left the station.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Creating Rail Jobs.. of course.
The DEms in the WH and Congre$$ are pretty good at creating them ..
as far as i am concerned he can keep floridas share...we the voters in this state have shot this down numerous times yet our elected cronies keep reviving it and shoving it down our throats....
$400 million allotted to Ohio to connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati by rail — will be for trains traveling no faster than 79 mph.
..
Uhhh,, aren’t those cities already connected with rail.. just fix the old tracks..
what a boondoggle.
High-speed rail projects in California from Twenty Nine Palms to Death Valley,some plans fail and stink.
..same old stuff...
I worked for a very short time on a Federal High Speed rail project out of Boulder CO in about 1972. It was an aerospace industry replacement for NASA cutbacks — sound familiar?
Remember how the whole world was going to go to high speed maglev trains?
More $$$ down the drain, and apparently a lot of the $$ exported out of the US according to the article.
California is slated to get as much as $2.25 billion for its planned project to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco with trains as fast as 220 mph.
Florida will receive up to $1.25 billion to develop a new high-speed rail corridor between Tampa and Orlando, featuring trains as fast as 168 mph.
Routes connecting to Chicago also stand to land significant money. Corridors connecting the city with St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., Madison and Milwaukee, Wisc.; and Detroit are targeted for improvement;
A high speed rail makes sense on the Eastern Corridor but the feds/AMTRAK will manage to screw even that up. Everywhere else it’s a ridiculous boondoggle.
Floridians have shot this down many times. It’s idiotic. There is no need for a high speed rail between Tampa and Orlando. It will be a HUGE money loser. Maybe Miami to Orlando, or Miami to Tampa, but Tampa to Orlando. It’s so silly it is laughable.
$1.25 billion for Florida’s Tampa-Orlando corridor, $1.2 billion of HSR/Amtrak funding for the Northeast (of which the high-speed grant was just $485 million), $1.1 billion for Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City, $823 million for Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Twin Cities, $620 million for Charlotte-Raleigh-Richmond-Washington, $598 million for the Pacific Northwest, $400 million for Ohio, $244 million for Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac, $17 million for Iowa, and $4 million for Texas. The list quite rightly hones in on the known priority corridors: Florida, but also the Midwest routes that are planned to feed into Chicago, which were awarded a total sum just shy of California’s (albeit distributed for use by several states).
California has been especially excited by the opportunity to obtain much-needed federal money to add to the portfolio of funds that will be used to build California’s high-speed rail project. California was in fact so eager that the State applied for $4.7 billion, over half of the nation’s total allocation.
California’s piece of the stimulus pie, meanwhile, includes the $2.25 billion to be used to complete various projects along four high-speed segments (San Francisco-San Jose, Merced-Fresno, Fresno-Bakersfield, and Los Angeles-Anaheim), including environmental review, engineering, stations, track, signaling, and right-of-way acquisition. California also received $99 million to be used on smaller Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin, and Pacific Surfliner projects. That funding was awarded to both the High-Speed Rail Authority and Caltrans, and it does not appear that more specific project-level (or even corridor-level) allocations were announced by the federal government for the bulk of the funds. Of particular interest is the fate of the $400 million request put in for the Transbay Transit Center’s train box
Just what we need, a fast train from L.A. to Las Vegas.
I have looked into taking the Acela Express from Philly to Boston to visit family. The trip takes exactly the same amount of time as the regular amtrack, but costs a lot more.
.I remember that ......the people spoke loud and clear in ‘04......
The rail system was originally authorized by a 2000 referendum of Florida voters but repealed by 64% of Florida voters in a 2004 referendum.
Hair of the dog that bit you doesn't work for hang-overs of the fiscal or alcoholic sort.
Interestingly, the main CA “people flow” is from the San Diego/LA area to the Sacramento/SF/San Jose area.
The present bottle neck is the missing rail link from Bakersfield to Los Angeles. At present you have to get on an Amtrak coach at Bakersfield for a 100 mile trip South to LA.
I notice this large gap in where people actually want to go hasn't been addressed...:^)
just heard the top of the hour news clips of Obama and Biden in Tampa at their townhall thingy and whistlestop for the oBama High Speed Rail Jobs program..
Maroons on parades. It’s sad.
Lying and posing is all they can do now.
WOW!! I haven’t seen a “pouring money down the rathole of high speed rail” thread in a while!
The problem with high speed rail is that it’s just not economically feasible in most areas of this country. We like our cars and the protection they provide to us. John Rocker was correct.
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