High Speed Rail Fails : A Waste of Billions

This is still more insanity from the left - it has been tried in many different states and rejected as economically unworkable, a total waste of time and money. Even when the federal government promises billions to build the system or at least foot the bill most of it, governors still reject the money as they know the actual cost is far higher then any of the projects proponents claim.

To illustrate the truly craziness of this high speed rail, one only needs to look at Milwaukee's attempt to build a 2 mile commuter rail that will cost taxpayer hundreds of millions when is said and done. Just the propitiatory drawings and field studies have cost taxpayer millions without turning a spade of dirt. This seems to be lost on the citizens who will have to dig deep to foot the 'unforsceen' bills.

And even in the face of where ever this has been tried, it has failed. Whether its high speed rail between cities or commuter rail for inter city travel, the costs to build and maintain the systems have been far higher then expected. Taxpayers lose again. Who knew?

High-Speed Rail: A Track to Nowhere
February 15, 2013
Source: Randal O'Toole, "Why High-Speed Rail is Ridiculous Fantasy," Cato Institute, February 10, 2013

Dreams of a national high-speed rail system should be promptly discarded. Though trains have long become technologically and economically obsolete, supporters of a high-speed rail system in the United States continue to draw new maps illustrating where the rail system would service and champion the project as a great job producer, says Randal O'Toole, a Cato Institute senior fellow.

• O'Toole criticizes a new map drawn by railway supporter Alfred Twu that imagines major stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, El Paso, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Cleveland, New York and Boston.
• Economist Megan McAradle points out that it makes little sense for a passenger to opt for an estimated 18 hour trip from Los Angeles to New York when a plane can make the same trip in roughly six hours for less cost.
• Twu's Los Angeles-Miami line ignores Amtrak's previous failure trying to extend its least popular line, Los Angeles to New Orleans, to Miami.

O'Toole also wonders why routes from Cheyenne to El Paso, Chicago to Montreal and a line from McAllen, Texas, into Mexico are necessary. He notes that the new map violates the conventional wisdom that trains are most competitive in 100- to 600-mile markets, not the 2,000- to 3,000-mile markets envisioned by Twu.

Rail is only estimated to attract a maximum of 5 percent to 6 percent of the transportation market. Because railways are not economically viable, and will always be at least half as slow as airplanes, only the government would be able to cough up the necessary billions of dollars it would take to build such a rail system. Such a rail system would not serve Americans' needs because it only serves select destinations and would thus only serve a small fraction of the total travelers.

If high speed travel is truly the goal, O'Toole recommends streamlining air travel. Air travel requires far less infrastructure and is flexible enough to adjust to demand, unlike a track, which is permanently fixed to the ground.
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