Jan 28, 2010
National News: High-Speed Rail Money Awarded
By: Kevin Buchanan
The federal government has started to back up its vision of a national high-speed rail initiative with the awarding of around $8 billion in grants to states for their high-speed rail projects.
The Transport Politic has more. The big winners? California, Florida, and Illinois.
As has been expected, California, Florida, and Illinois are the big winners, with more than one billion in spending proposed for each. But other states with less visible projects, including Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Washington will also get huge grants and begin offering relatively fast trains on their respective corridors within five years. The distribution of dollars is well thought-out and reasonable: it provides money to regions across the nation and prioritizes states that have made a commitment of their own to a fast train program.
“Made a commitment” – aye, there’s the rub. Despite all manner of very well-thought-out proposals here in Texas such as the unfortunately-named Texas T-Bone or the French proposal, the state government has essentially done nothing at all to show a real commitment to it. As a result:
Iowa and Texas will get small grants to fund minor improvements for their systems. Texas’ huge T-Bone project has not received any funds, for two clear reasons: there is no political advantage in funding a project in a state unlikely to vote Democratic at the national level for the next decade at the least, and the state government has done nothing to fund the project independently — or even approve its exact route.
Hooray for Governor Good Hair our visionary leader!!!
I was very happy to see so many projects in the works around the country even if none of them are here. As an Amtrak rider and an I-35 driver I’m very sorry none of them are here.
It currently cost $49 and one hour to fly to Houston. It would cost $150 and two and a half hours to ride a high speed train to Houston. Texas would also have to invest another $200 billion to construct the rail network. Also the train would be run by the government and not a private company. It is a neat idea but the business model does not seem to fit in Texas. It will be interesting to see if the train in Florida increases the public’s transportation needs or if it becomes another Amtrak.
does that “one hour to houston” include the whole “arriving early at the airport for your strip search and dna test?”
probably not.
the experience of high speed rail is so far beyond airline travel that i think plenty of people would like the alternative even if it is a little slower (not counting the delays of security and stuff at the airport which the airline folks always leave out).
and the airlines are propped up by the government to a huge extent. there ain’t no form of transport in the u-s-of-a that isn’t subsidized.
u might want to talk to sncf about that “the business model doesn’t work in texas” thing – they know their high speed rail and they seem to disagree.
No, it does not include the security check point at the airport but if you think it will be any different at the train station you are naive.
The experience is your personal point of view. Flying through the air at just below the speed of sound is still pretty exciting.
Yes, most airlines are propped up by the government but Southwest is not. Yes you are correct that the government does subsidize airport construction but an airport is an economic hub and supports freight and civilian transportation. High speed rail is a dedicated line and only has one use.
If the French want to build high speed rail in Texas I say let them but I do not think the US people should provide the funds. I also disagree with Cintra getting paid for financing Texas toll roads too and I do not see the difference here. In both situations we have to pay a foreign company to participate in the transportation system.
I’m writing a letter to the President right now
I’m confused Jason – you’re okay with the French building a train (which US citizens would pay to ride) but not okay with Cintra building toll roads (which US citizens would pay to drive on)?
It’s pretty hypocritical of the President to lecture republicans on reaching across the isle when funding for his transportation initiative is almost strictly along party lines. We are fortunate that he threw us a $4 Mil bone in TX. In fact, Missouri and TX are the only red states receiving any funding at all. Not clear how much Missouri is getting, because all of the Illinois money is being distributed jointly with neighboring states. But even with a high estimate of $500 mil for Missouri, that’s only 6.3% of funding to the red states. Politicians : /
I’ve ridden Amtrak and I’ve flown various airlines. I’ll take Amtrak. I’ll ride a train over flying any ol’ day.