Comments on: California Applies for $4.7 Billion in High-Speed Rail Stimulus Funds

By: Rafael

Rafael — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:41:02 +0000

@ Academic Polemic -

the federal government will pay for capital projects, in the case of ARRA for upgrading selected existing/new corridors to a top speed of 110mph or more.

Recurring expenses, i.e. operations and maintenance subsidies for Amtrak California have to be paid by the state of California, which is actually defunding transit to plug a hole in its highway fund.

Unlike the slow existing services, HSR will generate a fare box return in excess of 100%, i.e. it will cover its recurring expenses. It may well cover interest on the debt as well. What it won’t be able to do is service the principal on the infrastructure cost of the starter line on top of that.

By: Academic Polemic

Academic Polemic — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:22:48 +0000

Teko is right on–why not spend this money on triple-tracking Amtrak, getting it to run on time and subsidizing the fare?

By: Drunk Engineer

Drunk Engineer — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:46:54 +0000

Indeed, the CHSRA grant applications are basically a joke. None of its grant proposals are “shovel-ready”. None of its projects will deliver a final product, other than environmental report. The only reason the CHSRA grants came about at all was result of extreme political pressure from the CHSRA Chair. Caltrans was forced, by the Governor, to pull all of its shovel-ready rail projects (i.e. new rolling stock, expansion of Capital Corridor, etc) because they would be more competitive. Thus, we lose actual rail improvements that might benefit passengers so that CHSRA can spend money on juicy consultant pork.

Note also that the only truly shovel-ready construction project on the list, San Bruno grade separation, will implement the 2003 pre-HSR plan which is unlikely to be compatible with final HSR implementation. It is designed for rail speed less than the 90mph required by the grant, and less than 125mph needed for HSR. It seems likely that much of that $300 million spent on San Bruno will be wasted.

By: Teko

Teko — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:34:46 +0000

This seems like another waste. California already has a railway system in place.
The problem is that the train fare is too high. If Amtrak was built to be used as mass transit, as opposed to some fancy transit for the few, and lowered it’s fare, it’d be more useful, more people would ride it.

But as of now it’s just a joke. So why has this joke been running for so long? Well all you have to do is look at the oil interest, and car companies. They’ve been very powerful, and have managed to sell their stuff all along.
Inefficient bulky cars were okay to sell, until the oil prices quadrupled.

Anyway Arnold has try to push non-sense for so long, and I’m surprised he’s still employed. Do people really like incompetents?