Posted on 03/02/2011 6:47:11 AM PST by seekthetruth
Edited on 03/02/2011 7:23:59 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
LAKELAND | Mayor Gow Fields met with Gov. Rick Scott on Monday night in a secret meeting in Orlando. Fields and mayors from Tampa and Orlando united to try to press Scott into accepting $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail money.
LUV our GUV !
I did not want toget into detail, but here is a quickie why no passenger rail system will ever work or be profitable in the Florida corridor between Orlando & Tampa. One, tourists rent cars in Orlando/Tampa and shuttle back in forth up & down interstate I-4 highway. They are not going to turn their rental cars in at Orlando, take a train to Tampa and rent another car. Two, Southwest Airlines has made a ton of money using the triangle route approach throughout the state of Florida, Orlando/Tampa/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach/Jacksonville, etc. That system beats any passenger railroad system, high speed or otherwise. Europe does have a terrific rail system, but europe is relatively speaking quite small in size and....low fare air carriers like Ryan Air are becoming outtsnding competitors. Take it from me, my friend any Florida elected official that supports Obama is either unbalanced or is smoking pot. The taxpayers of Florida would be burdened by a failed rail system where they would get little benefit and not return on their investment!!! I could go on and on , but ....it is extremely shameful that we have a POTUS that has no idea about anything, other then taking down this great country!!!
Can’t we just build a couple more municipal aquariums and maybe a football stadium or two and be done with it?
Rail is just to expensive for passengers. What we need is more of this: http://redcoachusa.com/buses.html
Round trip from Jax to Disney is $50, which includes reclining seats, wi-fi, restroom and movies.
Bus travel is good, too. I take the bus a lot when I travel in Spain...they serve you snacks and even meals and the buses are comfortable and not full of thugs and low-lifes (as they are here in the US).
Train travel is my favorite because you can get up and walk around, and they have a bar car on longer trips. The train, even a regular old-style non-high speed train, is usually faster and more reliable because there are no unexpected traffic delays. I remember sitting on a bus for two hours while they cleaned up a horrible auto accident somewhere outside of Madrid...but we could watch videos...
That said, all transportation, even automobile, is subsidized because the cost of the infrastructure is so high. But we obviously need it because we have to have to get from place to place efficiently (which is why the railroads were essential in opening the West). And the key has got to be efficiency: that is, getting people quickly from one place to another place they want/need to go. That’s what made rail a big money-maker for the original railroad barons, and I think could still produce big bucks for the right investors. But it MUST be commercially viable.
The other good thing about trains and buses is that they usually arrive downtown in whatever place you’re going to (airports have to be further away, simply by their nature) and it’s also much less hassel to take a bus or train than to fly. That could change, of course, once Muslims discover that Americans are taking the bus or the train...after all, what the Muslims blew up in Madrid were a few commuter trains (similar to LIRR, for you Northeasterners). So while there’s less security delay on buses and trains, compared to planes, this could change in the future.
Maybe not. Florida already has more aquariums than you can shake a stick at, and probably more stadiums than teams...that local pork has already been exhausted.
People in Florida really could use a way to get from place to place without getting trapped on our horrible highways. But, as I keep saying, it’s got to be commercially viable.
This could be anything from a combination of commuter rail and taxis/vans/quickie car-rentals to your location, to long-distance rail where you get to have a nice meal and a couple of drinks and then take a taxi to your hotel and have some good car-rental options available.
I think the thing that is missing in all of this is commercial smarts, that is, somebody who has figured out how to make this really pay on a private level. Remember, the first big fortunes in the US were transportation fortunes (railways), because we live in a big country and we need to be able to get around it.
I agree. I think the high-speed rail is idiotic at this point. As I said, it's not future technology; within a few years, there will be something much better, and there's no way we should spend so much money now to invest in what is already antiquated (being a techie type, I know how fast things are happening).
But the most important thing is that the federal government should have only minimal involvement in this. Unfortunately, in this case, it's calling all the shots, which means that the project is bound to be a boondoggle.
Some of our states are about the size of European countries, and if we look at it this way, we could actually produce good state rail systems that would connect with other interstate systems.
But I don't think most people want to go cross-country on the train. They want to get some place that is ordinarily within 1-5 hours of them by car without having to sit in traffic, not have that glass of wine after dinner, or have to figure out where to park, get gas, etc.
I think there's a market, but it should be a commercial project where the people involved have figured out how to make money at it (and you only make money if it's actually useful to your customers) and then they can request infrastructure funding for certain aspects of it. But I'd be really surprised if commercial development went for current high-speed rail.
Of course the subway system works in NYC, but that's because their population density supports that river of yellow cabs one sees there. No such density in Florida.
And do we want to pack ourselves into sardine-can homes in order to take a train to work? I don't think so.
You forgot the new baseball stadium, pally. Oh wait - that's in St. Pete --- nevermind ................................... FRegards
Good for him! I think the supporters of this legislation should agree to take the financial risk. If they are so sure it will turn a profit, then why don’t they put their money where their mouth is and leave my money alone!
Like a bridge to nowhere!!!
You are absolutely correct. Any state that takes high speed passenger rail system money from Obama is not too well balanced mentally!!! Like AmTrack it is dead on arrival. Who takes the hit? The American taxpayer, the state taxpayers will be hit for overruns and Obama further destroys the USA economy.
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