Posted on 07/28/2010 5:58:39 AM PDT by gartrell bibberts
RALEIGH – Those who seek election to political office deserve our thanks for their willingness to serve. Those who win election to political office deserve a chance to demonstrate their work ethic and wisdom.
But no one who wins election and then makes demonstrably foolish decisions deserves our respect. I’m rapidly losing whatever respect I had for politicians who continue to vote to fund low-priority projects in the midst of a fiscal crisis.
The problem exists at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Consider two recent decisions that involve senseless decisions at every level:
• Out of $10 billion in federal “stimulus” funds borrowed to date by Washington and routed through Raleigh to communities across the state, roughly $745 million has been devoted to road and bridge projects vs. $545 million devoted to what government officials call high-speed rail (it’s not, really).
Think about those figures for a moment. Millions of vehicles traverse North Carolina’s roads and bridges every day, accounting for the vast majority of all commuting, freight delivery, and intercity transportation in our state. On the other hand, only a few hundred people regularly ride intercity rail lines in North Carolina, and at best a few thousand will regularly use the expanded service should it ever materialize.
(Excerpt) Read more at carolinajournal.com ...
Maybe the founding fathers should have set up a fourth group of elected officials - like every major business - the controllers. They would all have to vote in each others raises.
Real world rail ping.
Amen, Brother John Hood.
This NC high speed rail proposal is just spending $545 million on a train that nobody but politicians would benefit from. Who travels from NC city to city, or from NC cities to Washington DC, on a regular basis?
On the other hand, only a few hundred people regularly ride intercity rail lines in North Carolina, and at best a few thousand will regularly use the expanded service should it ever materialize.
Libertarian narcissists like John Hood seldom present accurate facts to back up their biased opinions.
The truth is that Amtrak provided service to 676,511 passengers embarking or disembarking at North Carolina stations in 2008. (Raleigh was the busiest station, providing service to 136,479 passengers. Charlotte was a close second with 131,658)
In addition to these figures, there were another 675,966 Amtrak passengers who passed through North Carolina on there way to other states.
John Hood is either severely misinformed or is obfuscating the truth for some other motive. Either way, his priorities are blind to the growing public demand for energy efficient passenger rail that is arising from ever increasing petroleum costs.
676,511 passengers sounds like a lot until you actually do the math. That's a whopping 1853 people a day. Any major city street will easily have that many people travel it a day.
I wonder how much it costs the taxpayers to support the 373 riders per day in Raleigh.
I agree with you.
Does anyone out there have a chart that shows how much if the actual cost to operate Amtrak is actually covered by ticket sales?
I wonder how much it costs the taxpayers to support the 373 riders per day in Raleigh.
It can't be very much.
The Raleigh Amtrak Station was built by Southern Railway in 1950, and looks like it's been maintained in good condition.
Hmmmmmm.... that source provides information that 2009 Raleigh ridership was 141,234,
a 3½% increase over the previous year. (and a whopping 22½% over 2007 ridership levels.)
I guess a lot of people had to start riding Amtrak when Dubya bankrupted GM and Chrysler and used our tax money to bail out the bankers.
It's about time that our taxes be used to benefit ordinary Americans, and not just subsidize Wall Street CEOs who are "too big to fail."
The railway station isn't the whole tale. There is an aweful lot of infrastructure that surrounds it .
I'm not sure why you bothered to include another set of ridership statistics. It's still a whopping 386/day as opposed to the 273/day from the previous statistics you provided. Big woop. Still amazingly small considering the costs associated with rail.
It's about time that our taxes be used to benefit ordinary Americans, and not just subsidize Wall Street CEOs who are "too big to fail."
I'd prefer to keep my taxes to spend as I see fit rather than how some bureaucrat wants to spend it. That would be the conservative point of view as opposed to just making sure that the spoils benefit whatever pet project you or I might prefer. Rail might very well make economic sense in some of the northeast corridors, but I seriously doubt it is economically sound in North Carolina. I know it doesn't make sense here in Texas, even though they still keep pushing it on us and continue to rape the taxpayer year after year to subsidize the virtually riderless white-elephants on the tracks.
I'm not oppsed to rail. I'm opposed to taxpayer subsidized rail.
I enjoy riding the train, my husband can’t stand it. LOL! He gets restless and bored. On long trips, I just bring a book, and if I wake up in the middle of the night, I got into the Club Car and read.
In addition to these figures, there were another 675,966 Amtrak passengers who passed through North Carolina on there way to other states.
Cool. 3705 total riders per day. How many of those were repeat riders. That is, how many of the 268137 riders for Raleigh and Charlotte (734 per day) were commuters etc.
Do we really want to subsidize a whole trsain service for less than 800 people? How many people drove on the roads of Charlotte and Raleigh during that same time? Perhaps 200,000 per day? (I'm guessing it's probably much more).
I'd bet that the interstates through those towns get more traffic per week (riders) than amtrak brings through all year.
Now, How many people flew into those two towns in that year? And note that those who were not stopping in NC did not require any dedicated real estate while passing through (like your 675,966 pass through riders did)
Either way, his priorities are blind to the growing public demand for energy efficient passenger rail that is arising from ever increasing petroleum costs.
What growing public demand? The only thing I see are politicians looking for more tax dollars to build financially unfeasible toy trains.
Other than yourself I know of NO ONE who wants more trains. Not a single person. Including most model railroaders I know. Even they recognize that the finacials just don't work in this country.
Get with the 21st century...Trains are an expensive nostalgia for going-senile and going-senile wannabes. Trains are expensive...usually through taxes on people who don’t want them.
I agree entirely. They do not work in this country.
Willie Green is the choo choo cheerleader.
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