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Pacific Imperial Railroad, Watkins Environmental sign construction agreement
“WILLIAM G ROOT from DELAWARE said:
Who’s paying for all this??”
The Peoples Republic of California is broke, which dictates the cost burden gets passed to the federal government. As the federal government gets all its funding from the provider class, the answer is, you are, along with all the other members of the provider class paying taxes. I am assuming you work and pay income tax.
Great news!
Who’s paying for all this??
From what I have read here and elsewhere this is all private funds. An Environmental Impact Report is a requirement to reopening this line. My comment is back when this was an operating railroad it was a very expensive railroad to run. That said one of the sources of freight is the haulage of municipal waste. As expensive as this railroad is, all things considered, it is still cheaper then trucking.
I don’t know who will pay…BUT, I do hear clearly a giant whooshing sound going FROM my income heading toward Southern Cal!
The story says that Pacific Imperial Railroad leased the line for 99 years from the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. The story further states that Pacific Imperial contracted with Watkins Environmental to reconstruct the line. The story doesn’t say anything about Pacific’s source of funding for the work. In most cases, the owner of a property receives payments for a lease so SDMTS should generate some cash for the next 99 years from Pacific Imperial.
Re payment; Since 40% more is spent than collected, one might say are children are paying. Of course the Chinese(who much of the money is borrowed from) will extend liberal payment terms.
Kinda funny seeing a comment about California from someone in Illinois, my new home state managed to cut spending, balance the budget, start a reserve fund and looking at a budget surplus this year with a gov who wants to pay off debts. Can’t say that for Illinois.
By the way lived in both states and owned homes in both states and have paid taxes in both states.
JEFFERY GUSE from ILLINOIS, Do your homework Mr Guse, the Hwy Trust Fund, does not cover the cost of maintaining much less expanding the interstate system that you run your truck up and down. Billions if dollars in general fund taxes are diverted every year just to patch up what your big rig tears up. The fraction of the trust fund that is diverted to non hwy use has taken millions of cars off the already congested hwys so you don’t have to deal with them while your roaring down the PUBLIC roads in your PRIVATE truck. Look in the mirror the next time you want to see someone who is not paying his fare share of taxes.
Somebody has faith in an almost forgotten piece of railroad. Let’s hope the venture pays off.
@Chris B thompson. The federal highway trust fund distributes monies to each state. What each state does with money is easy to see. If you drive your auto on good roads with good bridges state wide, and have a good public transit system, then your state is using it’s state and federal fuel taxes on the roads as they should. However, if your roads and bridges are poorly maintained, and always in need of repair, then your state is using the federal and stste fuel taxes as general tax monies, ie… the money is placed in the general fund for what ever the state governor wants to spend it on. And as a side note; those big trucks you see on the road pay way more than their fair share. Think about this; Avg price of diesel @ $4.00/gal. Said truck gets 5mi/gal (some better, most worse) doesn’t matter which state the truck buys fuel in, it still has to pay fuel taxes to each state it drives thru a process called IFTA. Each truck also pays a Federat Highway Use Tax yearly of $500.00 fee more or less depending on its GCVW. Fuel tax on diesel is $.13/gal @ federal rate while each state sets it’s own fuel tax. Then there’e the weight-distance taxes some states add.
LAWRENCE G HAWS from OKLAHOMA, I think if you look a little closer you’ll see that trucks pay only a fraction of the cost if damage they do to our roads. Im not anti truck. The point I’m making is that all forms of transport in this and almost every country really on public subsides. Mr. Guse enjoys bashing Amtrak but will defend the trucking industry which itself is subsidized thru the federal and state government road building programs that are not completely paid for by fuel taxes are user fees.
This line will never work. Cargo coming in from the east to go on to a ship in San Diego for export the train will come back into the United States empty. The bandits won’t have to cross the border like they do in Texas. The railroad will cross the border and take the cargo to them.
Let’s get back on topic here!
As Mr. Markwart said, it’s an almost forgotten piece of railroad; I’m also glad to see that someone with some serious money is looking to upgrade the whole thing. Piecemeal, underfunded efforts have not yielded much. It does need a lot of work (including tunnel repair); it’s been at least partly out of service since 1975 (?), when a major storm wiped a piece of it off the map.
As for the source of cash, it does not appear that tax money is being spent for the project. These well-heeled investors do not appear to be deterred by my state’s horrific business climate (WE’RE #50!), and I certainly wish them well. The mention of a requirement for an EIR (I hope not) is chilling enough by itself.
The RR museum in Campo straddles the line, and will surely benefit from all this. Along with whatever the cargo business yields, the line has some really scenic stretches and potential for a modest amount of excursion travel.
The chaos in Mexico is definitely not a plus. When that will really improve, and how much it hampers freight and excursion business in the meantime, is anybody’s guess. The dysfunctional state of affairs below the border makes my California look like a well-oiled machine.
If the line does get rebuilt, and excursions run, I’d recommend a ride. Maybe I love desert vistas more than most of you, and you’ll need a passport, but it could be a lot of fun.
Let’s hope that the grief in Mexico doesn’t ruin it for people on both sides of the border who are only trying to earn an honest living.
The Goose flatuates again. Ever heard of the term “Loose as a goose”? This fits the Guse to a tee!
For those who don’t know, I believe the plan is to get the line up and running from Tijuana in the west to Plaster city in the east. There isn’t any business to speak of on the eastern end in California. All the business will come from the extensive Maquiladora presence in Northwestern Baja. This includes many light and heavy industries including a large Toyota assembly plant. I have looked at a variety of locations along this line over the years and can state that if any significant traffic develops then essentially the entire railroad will need to be rebuilt with new rail and ties. Also there will need to be some sidings built. Basically the whole thing hasn’t had much done to it since the days of steam. I hope these guys succeed where everyone else has failed.