Why are the taxpyers getting gouged?
I was a teenager in NYS when the legislature passed the modern state lottery in 1967. In 1978, New Jersey became the second state to legalize casino gambling. I remember well all the predictions of regressive taxation and social ills...all of which have come true.
Now the feds are going to borrow even more money we don’t have to move more people at higher speeds to the LV gambling mecca. It was bad enough that states allowed lotteries, card rooms and casinos...it is many times worse when the feds subsidize transportation to gambling by borrowing money and wasting our hard earned tax money. This is an outrage.
Ridership and fares
DesertXpress estimates that it will carry around five million round trip passengers in the first full year of operation,[13] with the company charging fares of around $50 for a one-way trip.[11]
Cost and funding
The total cost of the line is expected to be around five billion US dollars.
In March 2010, project planners said they could obtain the full funding amount through exclusively private investors[9][5], but had also applied for a $4.9 billion loan through the federal Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing program. [9] As of October 2011, the start of the project was contingent on receiving a $6 billion loan from the federal government, the approval or denial of which is expected in mid-2012.[14]
96,153 passengers per week, with the bulk one way on Friday afternoon/evening & returning Sunday afternoon/evening adds up to a LOT of seats/cars/trains that have to be running those two days...and almost zilch the rest of the week. Also, LOTS of empty seats headed back in the opposite direction to get the next loads. Too much dead-heading involved.
I doubt very many Vegasites would take the train to go shopping & sight seeing in Victorville!
Hard to tell from this for certain, but it appears that TWO loans are involved, from separate federal programs, totaling 10.9 BILLION, to build the "100% privately financed" 5 billion dollar project?
$50/head, one-way may be okay for a single traveler, but $200/couple round trip starts to eat into the slot machine & bar money, to only save 2 hours max each way...and that 2 hours on the train isn't long enough to sober up for the drive down Cajon Pass, either.
Need a mighty big parking lot, too.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-03/D9TNU9VG0.htm
AP Enterprise: Vegas rail: a gamble or good thing?
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
VICTORVILLE, CALIF.
On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.
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.[snip]
Construction cost projections have soared to as much as $6.5 billion, not including interest on the loan. Some fear taxpayer subsidies are inevitable.
Reid and other supporters point to research that shows 80,000 new jobs, but FRA documents show virtually all those would be temporary -- no more than 722 would be permanent.