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Company May Get $4.9B Federal Loan For High Speed Rail Linking Victorville And Vegas
CBS/AP) ^ | March 25, 2012 1:10 PM

Posted on 03/25/2012 7:16:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Privately held DesertXpress is on the verge of landing a $4.9 billion loan from the Obama administration to build the 150 mph train, which could be a lifeline for a region devastated by the housing crash or a crap shoot for taxpayers weary of Washington spending.

The vast park-and-ride project hinges on the untested idea that car-loving Californians will drive about 100 miles from the Los Angeles area, pull off busy Interstate 15 and board a train for the final leg to the famous Strip.

Planners imagine that millions of travelers a year will one day flock to a station outside down-on-its-luck Victorville, a small city where shuttered storefronts pock the historic downtown.

An alliance of business and political rainmakers from The Strip to Capitol Hill is backing the project that could become the first high-speed system to break ground under President Barack Obama’s push to modernize the U.S. rail network — and give the Democratic president’s re-election prospects a lift in battleground Nevada.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has publicly blessed the train — it means jobs, he says — and it’s cleared several regulatory hurdles in Washington.

Yet even as the Federal Railroad Administration considers awarding what would be, by far, the largest loan of its type, its own research warns it’s difficult to predict how many people will ride the train, a critical measure of financial survival, an Associated Press review found.

There are other skeptics, as well.

“It’s insanity,” says Thomas Finkbiner of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. “People won’t drive to a train to go someplace. If you are going to drive, why not drive all the way and leave when you want?”

(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News
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Why don't the casinos pay for this?

Why are the taxpyers getting gouged?

1 posted on 03/25/2012 7:17:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin
Really trying not to take the Lord's name in vain here.

WE'RE BROKE AND THIS IDIOT IS STILL HANDING OUT BILLIONS LIKE IT WAS HALLOWEEN CANDY.


2 posted on 03/25/2012 7:19:28 PM PDT by denydenydeny (The more a system is all about equality in theory the more it's an aristocracy in practice.)
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To: BenLurkin

Why?? Didn’t that idiot Obama tell us we shouldn’t go to Vegas?


3 posted on 03/25/2012 7:20:54 PM PDT by smalltownslick
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To: BenLurkin

For you East Coasters, Victorville is a desert town in the middle of nowhere. That’s where the SoCal-to-Vegas turn-around buses stop to let you pee and stretch your legs.


4 posted on 03/25/2012 7:22:06 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (If my candidate doesn't win the nomination I'm going to kick my feet, cry like a baby, and stay home)
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To: BenLurkin

So....Reid’s Great Plan is to scuttle something useful - something the country needs: Yucca Mountain.

And build something no one needs: a gambling train to nowhere.

I guess “We have to build it to see where it will run”


5 posted on 03/25/2012 7:28:31 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Burning the Quran is a waste of perfectly good fire.)
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To: BenLurkin

Under three hours form Victorville to Vegas. By the time you get to the station early to clear security, ride the train and take a shuttle or taxi to your hotel, you can drive....and you’d have a car when you get there.


6 posted on 03/25/2012 7:35:04 PM PDT by socal_parrot (I hate to say I told you so, but...)
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To: smalltownslick

Yes, nobama said that. With no one taking this loser train, he was right!


7 posted on 03/25/2012 7:40:32 PM PDT by hal ogen (1st Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: BenLurkin

My sister in law just booked a flight from San Diego to las Vegas for $56. Why would anyone go to Victorville and take a train. By the time you get to Victorville you are already half way there. You can get a round trip air ticket for $99 from LA and get you the in 30 minutes. STUPID STUPID STUPID.


8 posted on 03/25/2012 7:40:41 PM PDT by Hildy ("When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - SocratesHill not text while dri)
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To: BenLurkin

My sister in law just booked a flight today from om San Diego to Las Vegas for $56. Why would anyone go to Victorville and take a train. By the time you get to Victorville you are already half way there. You can get a round trip air ticket for $99 from LA and get you the in 30 minutes. STUPID STUPID STUPID.


9 posted on 03/25/2012 7:48:09 PM PDT by Hildy ("When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - SocratesHill not text while dri)
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To: Jeff Chandler
For you East Coasters, Victorville is a desert town in the middle of nowhere.

Victorville is actually a rather sizable town. It's not really "in the middle of nowhere"--San Bernardino is only about a half hour away, as are Palmdale, Lancaster, and,for that matter, Barstow, and it's not all that far from Big Bear Lake.

Nonetheless, the idea is nutty. If I don't stop for breakfast at Peggy Sue's in Yermo or the Mad Greek in Baker, I can get from Victorville to Las Vegas in about two and a half hours by car, so why would I want to park and take a train the rest of the way? Especially when I will have to have a way to get around Las Vegas once I arrive. Unlike Manhattan or Washington, DC, Vegas is spread out across a wide valley and there's no municipal rail system.

10 posted on 03/25/2012 7:51:29 PM PDT by Fiji Hill (Deo Vindice!)
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To: BenLurkin
I’m suspicious,” said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, which questioned ridership potential in a report last year. “There is no high-speed rail system in the world that operates without subsidies."

At least someone is telling the truth out there.

Drive a hundred miles to park, pay $100 to get on a train and ride 200 miles more so you can get there without a car. Yeah that'll work.

11 posted on 03/25/2012 7:52:01 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: hinckley buzzard

It’s worse than THAT!

Lost Wages has a monorail that runs along the strip.
It sees too few riders to make profit.
This is AFTER the tourist have already arrived at the strip.

If they won’t ride a train once there, why would they take a train to GET there?

I live in Nevada, I really do not want the black-eye that will come about when this stupidity fails!


12 posted on 03/25/2012 8:02:39 PM PDT by Loyal Sedition
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To: hinckley buzzard

“At least someone is telling the truth out there.
Drive a hundred miles to park, pay $100 to get on a train and ride 200 miles more so you can get there without a car. Yeah that’ll work.”

This whole scenario harkens up to a “Solyndra on wheels”....

Spending billions instead of millions....


13 posted on 03/25/2012 8:04:53 PM PDT by Road Glide
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To: BenLurkin

Victorville isn’t Hell, but you can see it from there.


14 posted on 03/25/2012 8:07:33 PM PDT by kik5150
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To: BenLurkin

Ya, why is the federal government having to give a loan to this company to build this bullet train?

To paraphrase President Obama, he’s going to borrow money from China to loan it to this company.

Another story said this company has some ties to Harry Reid. So this could even be a political payoff.

If the casinos, or other private investors, want to build a bullet train across the desert, fine. Build it with your own money, and see if you get business. But no way should the federal government be giving this loan to build this thing.

No lessons were learned from the Solyndra loan, were there?


15 posted on 03/25/2012 8:10:11 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: kik5150

Who the hell owns DesertXpress? Their website doesn’t mention the usual things like ownership and board members. My guess is that there a lot libs in this. Probably no real “investment”..just waiting get checks from Uncle Sugar.
Show me a balance sheet and some ownership facts.


16 posted on 03/25/2012 8:22:54 PM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: BenLurkin

Blow billions on this stupid train shit but the Keystone Pipeline which would produce real jobs and energy is killed by president JugEars.


17 posted on 03/25/2012 8:24:37 PM PDT by dennisw (A nation of sheep breeds a government of Democrat wolves!)
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To: BenLurkin

Once they have the money, they can make a big donation to the democrat party. Then file for bankruptcy.


18 posted on 03/25/2012 8:25:20 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: BenLurkin

The hangup for LA-Vegas Amtrak Service has always been double-tracking in the desert to avoid huge delays, and speed the service to Vegas.

But, it has been hamstrung since the mid-90’s by some endangered frog, or hamster, or something, that lives in the stretch of desert that would be double-tracked.


19 posted on 03/25/2012 8:25:54 PM PDT by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: smalltownslick

He needs to throw a plum to keep harry Reid from bringing up a vote on a budget for the next ? years.


20 posted on 03/25/2012 8:29:39 PM PDT by IceAge
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