Posted on 08/17/2010 4:00:59 AM PDT by Willie Green
The biggest enemy of doing something WELL is trying to do it BETTER.
For years I have been touting a rail service (Carnival Express) between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but for some reason the only proponents who have surfaced thus far insist on having a multimillion-dollar, high-speed train that will require a new, expensive, high-maintenance-cost rail system.
This proposed zippy train would make one stop between Baton Rouge and downtown New Orleans.
It is roughly 45 miles to Gramercy (a good halfway point).
Can you imagine a train leaving Baton Rouge, reaching its cruising speed of 120 mph as it approaches Gonzales and eight minutes later starting to reduce speed for its stop in Gramercy; then, the same scenario being repeated from Gramercy to New Orleans? It is unclear whether another stop will be made at the Louis Armstrong Airport, but it should.
This is not conducive to a high-speed service. What difference does it make if it takes 90 minutes to make the trip or 45 minutes?
Gov. Bobby Jindal was advised that the annual operating cost would be approximately $18 million for the above-mentioned rail service. He said that, because of the economy, he was afraid the state would be burdened with a subsidy; consequently, he did not support the idea.
I think he was a little shortsighted.
Because of track damage by Katrina, Amtrak’s Gulf Coast Connector Route for the Sunset Limited Line was suspended. It ran between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., with stops in Biloxi, Miss.; Mobile, Ala.; Pensacola, Fla.; and Tallahassee, Fla. As a result of the suspension, Amtrak has lost 41 percent of Sunset Limited’s revenue.
According to Amtrak, the entire track has been repaired to better than pre-Katrina condition, but the stations also need repairing. I think Amtrak would be receptive to rebuilding the station in Biloxi and providing operating services for the proposed Carnival Express.
It could travel round-trip between Baton Rouge and Biloxi via New Orleans. It is only 172 miles (2.5 hours). A joint venture between Mississippi, Louisiana, Amtrak and a consortium of casinos and hotels in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Biloxi could make it work. As the stations along the route to Jacksonville are repaired the line could be extended.
A modern diesel passenger train could be put in service on existing tracks between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in short order. Some upgrades may be required, but the cost should not be excessive. Since new tracks now exist between New Orleans and Biloxi, nothing is needed.
I would envision the rail cars to be well- furbished and the trains to include a lounge car and a dinning/snack car.
The economy will not remain in the doldrums forever. It’s time to plan now.
Baton Rouge needs something like this. There are no good flights, no train service...everything goes out of New Orleans. Baton Rouge is the state capitol.
Uh, an hour and a half for the round trip?
Well at least there’s some sanity here. Now if they can just get government’s hands out of our pockets and let business do it, it would be the perfect solution.
Gov Jindal was exactly correct. The state would have been burdened by a subsidy. And even with regular passenger rail there is that risk. Which is why government can have no part in this.
I think I can.
OK, let’s say you live near Airline Hwy or Sherwood Forest. (Baton Rouge landmarks and residential/light commercial areas).
Option A - you get in your car, drive to the train station and wait for a train that runs infrequently on a schedule set by the gummint. You take the train that stops some distance from where you really want to go (except perhaps the NO airport). You then have to arrange or obtain transport to your final destination in NO. Same for the return trip.
Option B - You hop on Interstate 10 at your convenience at the Bluebonnet interchange and drive the not quite 80 miles to your final destination, at your convenience. The TRIP probably lasted a *total* of 90 minutes.
It cost you 4 gallons of gas, one way; how much will the trian cost?
More than $18 Million/yr?
The real question here is: are these trains economically viable? I suspect the answer for many is: no. While you might save some time from city to city, you’ve still got to have the mobility to get where you need to go within the city or surrounding area. If the city doesn’t have a transit system, you’ll have to rent a car. And then any time or money savings goes out the window.
The worst case is the "Big Dig" in Boston. Another example was a bridge across the bay east of Pensacola. The company pushing it claimed that a toll bridge would provide massive revenue to the area and reduce the commute for many people. They built the bridge and the revenues didn't even cover the salaries of the toll plaza workers. That's when the government decided to actually look at the figures that were provided for the revenue. The estimates required 60% of the population of the county to cross the bridge twice a day. It was totally unrealistic.
Never do they show the ridership potential vs profit/loss.
'Sfunny, but when I lived there, I never had any trouble getting flights to anywhere I wanted to go (or my company needed to send me).
That factors out to $18 million per rider.
Anyone that is for government building this train is a socialist/Marxist/liberal. Read up on it.
Socialism(government ownership) doesn't work.
The biggest problem the U.S. has is that government is too big and is getting bigger and more powerful.
One of the main reasons government grows is that the liberal media gets some people to say “why we ought to do this” or “we ought to do that” . who is “we”.”we” is the government as things cannot be done “communally”. See the word communism in communally and commune? When “we” do something what is empowered is the government and individuals and private businesses lose more freedom and money(taxes).
No matter how good the liberal media makes something sound the only thing it will do is empower government which is the liberal media's goal. Take the "going to the moon" thing. NASA is now doing global warming studies and Muslim outreach but a lot of people thought that it would be a good idea to create this massive government agency.
Why isn't any government manufacturing a product like a car, or notebook computer or cell phone or even cereal? It's because for 5 trillion per year government can't even compete with small private companies(capitalism). 5 trillion is the federal budget and state and local budgets.
The liberal media and government bribe us with our own money.So the government is exploding because everyone has their own pet project and because of government tyranny. The damage done to freedom and prosperity by creating one government agency, or by one law is immeasurable as evidenced by the democrats'/socialists' government healthcare law.
Government agencies and many of their supporting laws must be abolished: To create even one more like this train thing is UTTER INSANITY. If the U.S. does not start abolishing government agencies and reducing government spending at all level then we will all be on the road to socialism which will mean hellish 4th world living standards, starvation, oppression etc.
Only individuals or private business can do anything and should do what they want to for the most part with only a few laws that are common sens. That is called a free market, capitalism, or freedom. Anything else is socialism or creeping socialism as we have now.
“All these train articles are the same. Wonderful trains, subsadies, etc., etc........... “
Actually, this article was a bit different from the rest. It was rejecting the idea of high speed rail outright, and offering other possibilities - let’s use what we have. It may not work, either, but it made a lot more sense than the pie in the sky stories.
We don't need ANYTHING from government except the military, courts, police and border control, period.
Anyone like you that is for government building this train is a socialist/Marxist/liberal. Read up on it on the Internet.
Socialism(government ownership) doesn't work.
The biggest problem the U.S. has is that government is too big and is getting bigger and more powerful.
One of the main reasons government grows is that the liberal media gets some people to say “why we ought to do this” or “we ought to do that” . who is “we”.”we” is the government as things cannot be done “communally”. See the word communism in communally and commune? When “we” do something what is empowered is the government; While individuals and private businesses lose more freedom and money(taxes).
No matter how good the liberal media makes something sound the only thing it will do is empower government which is the liberal media's goal. Take the "going to the moon" thing. NASA is now doing global warming studies and Muslim outreach but a lot of people thought that it would be a good idea to create this massive government agency.
Why isn't any government manufacturing a product like a car, or notebook computer or cell phone or even cereal? It's because for 5 trillion per year government can't even compete with small private companies(capitalism). 5 trillion is the federal budget and state and local budgets.
The liberal media and government bribe us with our own money.So the government is exploding because everyone has their own pet project and because of government tyranny. The damage done to freedom and prosperity by creating one government agency, or by one law is immeasurable as evidenced by the democrats'/socialists' government healthcare law.
Government agencies and many of their supporting laws must be abolished: To create even one more like this train thing is UTTER INSANITY. If the U.S. does not start abolishing government agencies and reducing government spending at all level then we will all be on the road to socialism which will mean hellish 4th world living standards, starvation, oppression etc.
Only individuals or private business can do anything and should do what they want to for the most part with only a few laws that are common sens. That is called a free market, capitalism, or freedom. Anything else is socialism or creeping socialism as we have now.
But ...
The Moscow subway has giant chandeliers!
What could possibly go wrong?
What defines ‘high speed’ rail? I’ve taken my handheld GPS on trips between Boston and Washington and the Northeast Regional often exceeds 110 mph. Iirc I once saw 124 mph.
Just the opposite.
I meant to imply that my Option B of DRIVING is preferable to a gummint-subsidized train ride.
Please re-read my post. ;-)
What defines ‘high speed’ rail? I’ve taken my handheld GPS on trips between Boston and Washington and the Northeast Regional often exceeds 110 mph. Iirc I once saw 124 mph.There is no standardized definition of "high-speed" rail, which leads to considerable confusion in discussion. But in general, speeds of 90~110~120 mph is pretty much the upper limit for "conventional" heavy rail systems that we currently have if they are upgraded and maintained in excellent conditions. To achieve speeds exceeding that up to 190~200 mph or so would require complete replacement of current infrastructure with technology similar to the Japanese Shinkansen Bullet Trains. The Bullet Trains cannot share track with freight traffic. Experimental speeds beyond 200 mph have been achieved with the most promising technology being Maglev (which is also incompatible with the other high-speed technologies.)
We are having a similar debate up north in Wisconsin. The Dem. governor wants a train between Madison and Milwaukee. We have federal money to build most of it, but the yearly operating costs will be at least $10 million. The state will have to pick up that cost year after year.
Our train would be high speed, but would start in Milwaukee, then make three stops before it got to Madison. The drive by car is 90 minutes. With the stops it will take about 60 minutes. Then once you get to the destination you have no car to get where you really want to be!
Our train will be costly and inconvenient. I bet yours will be too.
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