Truly; a day that will be remembered in history:

Maybe this string should be limited to Californians?
Just maybe?
It is about California and certainly not about the military supression of the world wide worker's paridise.
 
Sounds like California currently has a oversized budjet. Bet heavy taxes will be taken from the ordinary man on the street to cover these projects as always.
 
they may try to tax us, but people in california are usually against any new tax, which means that we will end up higher in debt
 
This just doesnt sound like a good idea to me, at least right now in time. Just my opinion but i figure the majority of Americans' don't want HSR, and it will take a lot to shift people over from air travel (doubt the ticket prices on the train and travel times will be much lower then air travel).
800miles that article says they want to achieve, 800 miles! They will have to make up new names for numbers because the final cost will have so many 000's on the end... As another option why not significantly improve the northeast corridor instead of leaving it outdated and congested as it is at present?
 
As another option why not significantly improve the northeast corridor instead of leaving it outdated and congested as it is at present?
Pennsylvania lost it's funding for HSR ... the NEC is a patch-up, jury-rigged, slow speed rail system with high speed through trains running on un-dedicate track (asside from local trains using the outside 2 tracks, and express trains using the 2 center tracks). Shamtrak
 
Hi All: I personnly see this as an opportunity for HSR to go throughout the country..You have heard so much about the NEC and you can see the Interest of the people that use on a daily basis..Why can't people see the need for this??This is no Different than Eisenhower Interstate System is it??Why can't people see what it can do for unemployment..President Obama is trying to do the same thing as Eisenhower only its HSR..
 
Hi Everybody.
It is true that the cost to the state wherever that may be of developing such projects as HST railway systems is high and that may never be directly recovered even in the long-term.

That said, the benefits to the towns and cities that the HST system will pass through very often cannot be measured as direct costs versus income accounting. As advised in a previous posting these projects have to be looked at by way of, will it bring increased employment after the project is completed. Another audit would be, will surrounding business benefit from the from the project or will they directly use it.

If you look at my own small business here in Britain there are three of us that are “out on the road” or more commonly in Britain these days “out on the rail”. We are out there carrying out the work for our customers or in my case talking to the customers regarding future work they may give to us. All three of us use the passenger rail network especially the HST system as the travelling office. Workplace safety audits or incident investigation can be prepared on the journey to the workplace and reports can be made up on the return journey. With Wi-Fi and G3 available on the trains these reports can be in the office before any of us actually return.

The foregoing would certainly be something you would not be able to carry out if you are travelling by road or air. In my regular travels to London it means I gain four hours extra work time in any day which would be lost if travelling by any other means. In longer journeys to such destinations as Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle benefits are even greater. Many businesses adopt the same policy and travel arrangements and on peaktime HST's virtually everyone is working or phoning colleagues and customers with work related information. It makes for far greater business efficiency and most importantly quicker completion of work and thereby overall efficiency with most importantly the invoicing of the customer.

The above cannot be directly attributed to the recoverable costs of the HST systems. But it does mean that businesses are more competitive and productive and through that those businesses increase their income and the taxes they pay through the business direct and the tax paid by their (hopefully) increased numbers of employees.


Bill
 
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Now just think. If America got rid of those 200+ un-required military bases that are everywhere for what (?) as well as reducing the daftness of a million in uniform the money for HSR would see chicken feed. Now there's something for rail folk?!
 
There planning on putting a High Speed Rail through Colorado. Score! Now when it comes the time for me to get a job ( not for another ten years or so) i'll be riding in at 100+ MPH
 
Now just think. If America got rid of those 200+ un-required military bases that are everywhere for what (?) as well as reducing the daftness of a million in uniform the money for HSR would see chicken feed. Now there's something for rail folk?!

We should have done that 70 years ago if not 1914. It's a little late now.
 
I have no issue with HSR, I do have an issue with any entity be it state or country that would begin such a project when it's finances are running in the red, and their leader are begging the citizens to agree to pay more and more in taxes just to maintain the status quo, let alone finance a multi-billion dollar improvement such as this.

Now if this were a State that had it's finances in order to begin with, you wouldn't hear me moaning a bit. In addition: frankly who cares about what "the rest of the world" is doing? If my neighbors purchase a Bentley and take a second mortgage on their home to do so, does that mean I should as well... or risk appearing "behind the times"?

Try to disregard the political divisions and international pride some seem to be including in their discussions, and try to look at it from a common sense "kitchen table" economics point of view. These people that think they are all about the "big picture" often make the mistake of overlooking the "little picture". The big picture is great, I'd like to see anti-gravity transportation someday, but not at the sacrifice of the immediate future!


Well I guess that means Amtrak California will be dumped. F59PHIs, B32-8BWHs, and all rolling stock will be sold, retired, or scrapped. That gonna suck.
 
I really doubt that will happen, especially when this project grinds to a halt. Sure, it's easy to say that these types of projects should progress, but it comes out of my pocket in Federal Taxes, and these poor children in school right now have no idea how much of their future incomes will be paid to the government! Yay...HSR! Too bad you won't have enough pocket money to pay for a ticket!
 
Isn't it interesting? The level of enthusiasm for this project is typically directly proportional to one's distance from the state, and the Franchise Tax Board.

Bernie

Not here. I live along the Northeast Corridor, which Amtrak recently proposed spending $151 billion (no, that's not a typo) on in order to upgrade to HSR. No thanks, especially since even Clocker service between Philly and NYC is underutilized.
 
Yep, it's a disaster waiting to happen. There has been some talk of rebuilding an HSR version of the NEC for - get this - $151 billion. No, that's not a typo, that's what these nuts are actually advocating (nevermind that the average transit cost overrun is 30-40% over budget.)
 
I belong to the Midwest Assocciation for HSR..I do not Understand what it is about HSR..To me it is no different then Eisenhower wanting to build the Interstate System..He said then about how many jobs would be created trying to stimulate economy..Whats the Difference??
 
Bob...I hate to tell you this, but job creation does not stimulate the economy unless it's out of necessity in the PRIVATE SECTOR. Government using tax payer dollars removes money from the economy, and does not create profits. HSR would be great if it were a private venture, but private investors aren't interested because they don't see the possibility of a return on their investment.

The primary difference between the creation of the interstate system and HSR is that the former promoted business growth and expansion which stimulated the economy, and the latter is just government busy work to reward unions.
 
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