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California governor may use ‘cap and trade’ funds for high speed rail
wake up america and see what is being done in China and Europe. We in this country have a aging population that no longer a able to drive and have to depend on others to get around as we have no good public transportation and 100 miles to the nearest airport is not a alternate.
Don’t know about the California project or Governor “Moonbeam”, but it seems to me we need “higher speed” rail service to compete with the automobile. Airlines have a bleak future with 60% of their revenue going for fuel.
Mergers and fuel efficient expensive planes will help, but not save the industry. In Kansas City there has been a 36-38% drop in the flying population since 2001. One terminal has been shut down.
The highways are clogged and falling apart, the airports are nearly at capacity, and the population is growing fast. What would the opponents of high-speed rail suggest as an alternative? Why are so many people against a form of transportation that is clean, fast, and (potentially) uses no fossil fuel? Haven’t they learned anything from Europe, Japan and China? Why is this a political issue at all? Of course it will cost a lot, but the benefits will be enormous. Come on California, show the rest of us the way.
Go Go Speed Rail
Companies are vacating California and moving off-shore to adjacent states, if they can. They electric power utilities have already done so. Want to screw up that state? Cut a few wires in strategic places. This is what happens when rejects from the 1960’s elect a governor known as “Moonbeam.”
But don’t all you high speed choo-choo train to nowhere worshipers worry. Governor Moonbeam will simply bankrupt the state and then His Great And Holy Oneness Of Worshiping Socialist Change For Hopelessness will bail out the train wreck with another bailout and leave the provider class in other states to pay for it. Isn’t welfare railroading wonderful?
Cap and trade is a hoax based on anti-capitalism. Companies should vacate California asap with leadership such as this at the helm.
Hmmmm- Guse advocating sabotage of power lines? Hope Homeland Security reads his post.
they need rail from la to bakersfield w out a friggin bus
Liberals and Jerry Brown. No law they will not violate. Nothing thats not dead they will not tax.
There will be a huge increase in emissions due to rail construction, displacement of current businesses, and highway realignment. Any carbons savings are now theoretical and would depend on ridership and the not insignificant amount of energy to operate and maintain hundreds of miles of railroad.
Airlines and autos in the meantime are becoming significantly more efficient. The airline fleet is being turned over for more fuel efficient operations plus the loading factors have jumped making old comparisons completely out of date.
Cap and Trade funds remind me a lot of the cigarette tax settlements which were to be used to fund cessation and other related uses but turned into slush funds.
Bob
I would suggest automated highways will be the answer and will happen before HS rail would actually hit LA and SF.
Take the first step and become a leader of high speed rail in the US. You have the land scrape to get started and the population to sustain the service. You have already bumbled one opportunity to obtain funding and yet you continue to talk about it. Take a look at Toronto Canada at the billions of dollars being invested in southern Ontario. We have muiltipal projects happening and have set exact dates on getting things done. That is the problem in north america. We are so scared to take the leap. We wil be paying for all these new services in transportation taxes. That ends the debates here at least.
It’s too bad the CHSRA didn’t entertain following the I-5 rather than trying to service every town in the San Joaquin Valley thus costing more money and alienating the farmers and such. There’s Amtrak California’s San Joaquins to service the town in the valley and is doing a good job at that. Yes, there needs to be rail line to bring people from Bakersfield to L.A. Two hours on that damn bus is a bit much.
Wow, Gucci, that’s your greatest useless rant ever!!! The Guse has quacked!!!
The state government here is already spectacularly deep in debt, regardless of the current “balanced budget”. Meanwhile, the real price tag for this system is somewhere way out in the unknown, far beyond the $68 billion for a compromised plan that does NOT meet the wildly optimistic financial and performance requirements which the voters chose to finance.
Our aging “boy governor” is starting to look more desperate as he seeks ways to get his personal monument built. Some of his normal allies have been questioning the wisdom of this whole program and don’t like having the cap-and-trade money tapped. At the same time, he’s had some reverses in the courts.
We who didn’t support Brown in the first place can turn the tables on him and use favorite his line from the 1970s: Jerry, this is an “ERA OF LIMITS”, so get used to it! I hope that it doesn’t hurt his feelings.
I guess I’m just not able to see how initially running from nowhere to nowhere is going to demonstrate the economic feasibility of HS rail. It would have made a great deal more sense to begin with one of the anchor cities and run a hundred miles or so through populated areas where somebody might actually ride the train.
If a private concern had seen the value of such a system, they’d have built it much quicker and at lower cost. I recall reading that a company in Italy had done just that. But we’re talking about California and unions here. Enough said.
As for using Cap and Trade funds, other than they shouldn’t exist in the first place, let’s face it, liberal politicians are greedy and love to spend other people’s money.