California's high speed rail line was sold to voters on the bold promise that it will someday whisk passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours. Nine years later, the project has turned into such a disaster that its biggest political champion is now suing to stop it.As Instapundit often opines, there are too many opportunities for graft here for this train to go away.
An icon of California politics known as the "Great Dissenter," Quentin L. Kopp introduced the legislation that established the rail line, and became chairman of the High-Speed Rail Authority. He helped convince voters in 2008 to hand over $9 billion in bonds to the Rail Authority to get the project going. Since he left, Kopp says the agency mangled his plans.
"It is foolish, and it is almost a crime to sell bonds and encumber the taxpayers of California at a time when this is no longer high-speed rail," says Kopp. "And the litigation, which is pending, will result, I am confident, in the termination of the High-Speed Rail Authority's deceiving plan."
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
And Here In The 21st Century People's Paradise...
...our governor pushes a 19th Century mode of transportation. Not all of us support this:
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For $49 you can fly SF-LA in just over an hour.
For about the same money in gas you can drive it in 5-7 hours.
Then there's Amtrak, a 10 hour trek for, current price, $61.
And we need high speed rail for why again? No one knows what the prices will be but somehow I don't think they will be competitive.
Even with the Kabuki theater of airport theater, it's still faster and cheaper to fly, but trains are progressive -- such a wonderful 19th century way to move masses of people! Real costs be damned!
Why would anyone want to be on a high speed train or even Elon Musk's hyperloop when the chance of serious accidents are so likely in today's environment. Take the high speed train in California. How much deviation would it take for a serious accident to occur? When you consider the frequency of movement along the faultlines, it seems a ridiculous risk. Likewise the high speed train planned for Texas makes no sense unless you have a car transporter tacked on. What sense does it make to go from Dallas to Houston when you need a car to really get around at either end? Not everyone wants to Uber everywhere. Many of us prefer to drive ourselves. I can take Southwest from Dallas to Houston in less than an hour for about $60 and deal with the same situation. The bonus would be not wasting my tax money on building a high speed anachronism.
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