Trains To Nowhere

Reason TV adds more fuel to the argument against high speed rail:

1. The lowball costs. CNN estimates that delivering on the plan could cost well over $500 billion and take decades to build, all while failing to cover much of the country at all. Internationally, only two high-speed rail lines have recouped their capital costs and all depend on huge subsidies to stay in operation.

2. The supposed benefits. "We're gonna be taking cars off of congested highways and reducing carbon emissions," says Vice President Joe Biden, an ardent rail booster. But most traffic jams are urban, not inter-city, so high-speed rail between metro areas will have no effect on your daily commute. And when construction costs are factored in, high-speed rail "may yield only marginal net greenhouse gas reductions," say UC-Berkeley researchers.

3. The delusional Amtrak example. Obama and Biden look to Amtrak as precedent, but since its founding in 1971, the nation's passenger rail system has sucked up almost $35 billion in subsidies and, says The Washington Post's Robert J. Samuelson, "a typical trip is subsidized by about $50." About 140 million Americans shlep to work every day, while Amtrak carries just 78,000 passengers. There's no reason to think that high-speed rail will pump up those numbers, though there's every reason to believe its costs will grow and grow.

Meanwhile, the St. Pete Times reports that Florida's share of this boondoggle is facing an uphill battle. Let's hope so:

What's less certain is whether officials will be able to keep the project's money, public support and construction on track to start running trains in 2015, its architects said Thursday during a national rail conference in Orlando...

President Barack Obama promised $1.25 billion in stimulus money to start the project — about half of what the state requested...

"We're going to need full funding for the project or we can't move forward," said Nazih Haddad, chief operating officer of the Florida Rail Enterprise, who discounted the chances of lining up private construction financing given the economy.

Does anyone wonder why no private, for profit concern has ever proposed a project like this? They haven't because it makes no financial sense, which makes the government - and taxpayers - the suckers of last resort.

Based on 2.1 million riders a year with $20 average fares, the Florida Department of Transportation says high speed rail's revenue could pay for its costs. However, even Siemens and other possible contractors are skeptical of those numbers.

So even the beneficiaries of this taxpayer funded white elephant are questioning the government's rosy projections. This insanity needs to be stopped now.