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California transportation nonprofit endorses high-speed rail project
If California wants it, then Californians should pay for 100% of it. Of course, California is broke and people are leaving in mass numbers like locusts to destroy the next field. That would be Colorado. So where is the population growth? And who will pay for it? Other Americans who will never use this fantasy railroad. Of course, take whatever financial number the “experts” toss out and multiply by anything between 10 and 100 to get the true cost of building it, never mind operating it.
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TransForm is not what it seems to be and their conclusions should not be taken without a sizable grain of salt. For those who do not know, TransForm gets lots of it’s funding from Democrat PACS.
Having traveled by train in Europe and seeing how efficient it can be, one can only wonder why we have ignored the passenger train projects in so many places. Try driving through Arkansas on I-40 these days. We’ve seen traffic backed up for 15 miles from the White River bridge to Brinkley. The alternative is a 2 lane road built during the WPA projects. The sad thing is that in most cases new lanes are not being added, just repaired.It appears that for once Calif is doing something others should imitate.
Passenger rail is necessary but it’s telling that a ‘non-profit’ organization is quick to endorse it.
Apparently California doesn’t realize that it’s broke. A project without interstate ties shoud be funded by the state alone," with no Fed involvement. Dig deep Californians.
To Peter Benham: please provide evidence for your assertion that TransForm “gets lots of it’s funding from Democrat PACS.” I looked at their annual report for 2011, and I don’t see any political action committees listed among the donors. I do see a number of foundations (Ford, Irvine, Kaiser, Kresge, Hewlett), matching gift programs (Chevron, Google), and transportation agencies (AC Transit, Alameda County Transportation Commission, City of Berkeley) plus lots of individuals, and some in-kind gifts (Amtrak, Peet’s Coffee, Patagonia Sportswear, Clif Bar, and a bicycle club.) The only labor union contributions are in the $100-249 category, less than the cash contribution from another bicycle club.
That aside, I’m curious to know more precisely what you find unsavory about “Democrat PACS”. Would Republican PACS be ok with you, or would their contributions likewise render this organization suspect?
High speed rail is not yet in Seattle, but the current commuter trains operated by Sound Transit (Sounder trains) are doing very well as is the Cascades service by Amtrak.