- Webster's Seventh Collegiate ( same in the 11th )
Posted on 01/13/2014 8:46:11 PM PST by dennisw
California’s ludicrously ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco has been besieged with all kinds of problems from almost the moment of its official conception, but let that not restrain California Democrats from doubling down on what they seem to view as their iliadic quest to make high-speed rail happen.
Back in August, a judge declared that the project had already violated the 2008 ballot initiative that first authorized the $10 billion in bonds for the 500-mile train, because the state didn't actually having funding sources on the books for the $31 billion required to build even just the 290-mile “initial segment” — not to mention that the oh-so-green state had flouted the necessary environmental clearances. Governor Jerry Brown deemed the judge’s ruling a mere “setback,” ho hum, but the project has since encountered still more judicial “setbacks”
Gov. Jerry Brown of California is riding into an election year on a wave of popularity and an upturn in the state’s fortunes. But a project that has become a personal crusade for him over the past two years — a 520-mile high-speed train line from Los Angeles to San Francisco — is in trouble, reeling from a court ruling that undermined its financing, and from slipping public support and opponents’ rising calls to shut it down. …
“It’s time for the governor to pull up the tracks,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, who is the majority whip in the House. “Everything he has said has not come to fruition. It’s time to scratch the project.” …
The ruling in November by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento blocked the state from using $8.6 billion in bond money to finance the first part of the train line,
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
“Actually, more to the point, Jerry always struck me as oddly asexual (as so many creepy beta males obsessed with leftist politics seem to be these days... perhaps just undeclared poofs).”
When we were first married, my wife worked in SF with a woman who lived next door to the Brown’s (Jerry’s parents). She always maintained that both the Brown children were weird and so was Jerry’s mother. As you may recall, Jerry’s sister Kathleen ran for governor too, but lost to either Deukmejian or Wilson.
*Linda claims in her new book that they had career difference issues.”
Linda wants to be the engineer. Jerry carries the lantern and shoots out of that little house.
No private investor in his right mind would invest in high speed rail; the economics of consumer rail transportation are simply unworkable.
The economics that made consumer rail transportation profitable in the first half of the last century simply do not exist today.
Then there were no interstate highways, then air transportation did not exist or was prohibitively expensive very uncomfortable, traveling long distances by car took longer than by train and because the highways travelled through towns and cities rather than around them making the driving was physically taxing.
Today airlines and automobiles have for all practical purposes have replaced rail for the consumer travel market. If time is at a premium you fly, if it is not you drive. Rail is a fringe market only made economically possible by government subsidies. Those individuals who decide to travel by train are either hobbyist (travel by rail because they want to do so) or those who do not like to fly.
High speed rail can not succeed because there is no advantage to travel by rail over the other two means of transportation to the consumer in economics or convenience.
Yeah, Kathleen ran for Governor against Wilson in 1994. She did manage to win State Treasurer in ‘90, but was obliterated in that last good GOP year in California. After 1982 and Jerry’s disastrous run for Senator, it was unimaginable he’d ever win statewide again.
Shows just how lost the state is these days with three senile moonbats at the helm of the top three offices. Reagan was all of 55 when he defeated Pat Brown in 1966 (who was considered old at 61, after 16 straight years as Attorney General and Governor). Jerry’s about to turn 76 this year, Boxer 74 and Feinstein 81, and none of them show any intention of retiring.
Want to go cross country? You are definitely going to need a sleeper car.
Costs a LOT.
I can't imagine what the fares would be on this California train.
And BTW, Amtrak ALREADY goes from LA to SF.
And it actually passes through areas that you "might" want to get out and see.
Who would want to get off the train anywhere in the CA desert?
“Shows just how lost the state is these days with three senile moonbats at the helm of the top three offices. Reagan was all of 55 when he defeated Pat Brown in 1966 (who was considered old at 61, after 16 straight years as Attorney General and Governor). Jerry’s about to turn 76 this year, Boxer 74 and Feinstein 81, and none of them show any intention of retiring.”
You know what I pray for every night? That these people all get “called home!” And I say a special prayer for Hitlary. and Dingy Harry.
BTW I remember just how worried I was listening to Wilson “debate” Kathleen on the radio in the car, and then finding out when I reached my destination that the TV audience thought Brown lost big time.
If you look at this from another perspective: Imagine that California had decided to provide free bus service instead. With just the initial $10 billion in bonds they could have:
Bought 100 buses at around 600k each, they should run for about 1 million miles, and I'll throw in 200k for maintenance.
Paid $50/hr for someone to drive the buses.
Paid for the fuel to run the buses: I figure the buses could average 50 mph at 10 mpg while paying $4/gallon for diesel.
If you do the math: It works out to about $84 million/yr to run 100 buses 24 hours/day for 350 days/year. I'll go ahead and more than double that estimate to $200 million/year to account for graft, corruption, liability insurance, double time and a half on holidays, and over optimism in my projections.
So, they gave up free 24 hr/day bus service from the Mexican border to the Oregon border for 50 years for this.
The only downside is that if Jerry gets called home, CA is stuck with the creep from San Francisco, Gavin Newsom. If either Boxer or Feinstein kick off, Jerry gets to name their replacement. We all know how Jerry loves to name psychos like Rose Bird to high office.
If the state has a lick of sense, it will elect Tim Donnelly over Brown this year. Of course, the RINO wing will try to make sure an execrable Ahnoldbot twat like Abel Maldonado gets to be Jerry’s ringer. Sadly, it’s been 20 years since California demonstrated much sense.
- Webster's Seventh Collegiate ( same in the 11th )
Yes on rented/shared commercial freight lines where the freight has priority.
On rails built and maintained for freight you will never achieve high speed (>120 mph).
But then who wants to go from LA to SF on rails anyway. Those who can afford drive or fly there will probably do so. Those who can’t certainly can not will probably take the bus which is cheaper and has more locations which to depart from and arrive to choose from
That is a problem with rail as well. The people that rail is supposed to really help, the lower income strata is better served by busses than rail.
Governor Scott has been a mixed blessing. My former boss was on his board to increase employment in the state. (Don’t recall the name of the board.) My boss said that although they didn’t normally meet directly with governor that if they could bring just 50 jobs to the state he’d get on the phone right away himself (the governor) and cut a deal. He stopped the train, which was pure socialist payola to Democratic supporters. But he also signed us up for a huge Medicaid increase and he authorized the prosecution of George Zimmerman. (Although he personally selected a prosecutor I felt was doomed to failure from the beginning.)
Florida’s rail project didn’t even go to Disney.
A million folks a year fly in to Tampa International from mostly Latin America.
Most are not the best of drivers which everyone knows who has driven I-4 in the last 20 years
And of those million folks 11 are there for other than Disney
So high speed rail here is brainless
I miss the entertainment value of the Willie Green Happy Choo-Choo threads
To be honest I think High speed passenger rail is a great idea. It would be a lot of fun to ride. Unfortunately it will never make a dime in this country and is totally financially unfeasible. Bummer. I’ll just have to visit disney to ride the monorail.
High speed rail is all about the cash machine. $$$ from the treasury goes to contractors (Dem donators) who use union workers, who pay union dues to the union bosses, who in turn donate to Dem politicians. Dem politicians are re-elected who re-form the contracts so everybody gets more money over longer periods of time. Building a train system is secondary. It's about the looting.
Bump that. I viewed Scott as most qualified to attract business to Florida; that was his strength going in as governor.
I just listened to “Public Opinion” by Walter Lippmann, which you can download for free from http://www.bing.com/search?FORM=U220DF&PC=U220&q=leibrivox.org&src=IE-SearchBox
It explained why political people do the things they do. Each of us sees an entirely different world (reality.) It might explain why Scott has done some good things and some incredibly unexpected things, like prosecuting George Zimmerman. Everybody is a mix of things we’d agree on and things we wouldn’t. The audio book is well worth your time. Written around 1921 or so it is every bit as relevant today as if it were written yesterday.
It’s free on Kindle, too. Just downloaded it.
http://www.amazon.com/Public-Opinion-Walter-Lippmann-ebook/dp/B0084AFUW6
“often does not overcome the negatives of having several modes of transport to get to a destimation.”
You are also not at the mercy of the political whims of the unions and the Dem Party.
Public Transportation, when FORCED, becomes yet another control measure.
“Of course, the RINO wing will try to make sure an execrable Ahnoldbot twat like Abel Maldonado gets to be Jerry’s ringer. Sadly, it’s been 20 years since California demonstrated much sense.”
Thanks for ruining my morning coffee by mentioning that prick Abel Maldonado. The only one that would have been worse would be RAT Sen. Kevin DeLeon (the anti-gun a$$hole)
Good ole Willie Green...
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