Despite criticism and tripling of costs, Obama admin “not going to flinch” on support for CA bullet train. “It is clear that high-speed rail is not about jobs,” Rep David Nunes (R-CA) said at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing. “It is about corruption, public deception and bureaucratic experimentation.” He says that like those are bad things.
This post was last modified on December 18, 2011
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Who is gonna ride this POS? You can fly in an hour, or drive the state in a day...Besides a bunch of illegal aliens going north to south to pick fruit and vegetables, I don't see why anyone would want to ride this thing. Yet the morons that run this state thing it is great and will take us into a new era, that would be the era of bankruptcy the way this shithead liberals run Kalifornia.
The only bullet we need here is the one made by Preparation-H administered in high doses to democrats all over the state.
Is it any wonder this state is bankrupt?? "obama is not backing down". One crime after another. WE DON"T WANT OR NEED YOUR TRAIN!! We have too many illegals to house, feed and school.
Hmmm... maybe the state can house the undocumented Democrats by giving them tickets to ride bullet trains.
" Tokyo-Osaka trains leave EVERY 15 MINUTES through the day."
Loaded with passengers. That's another critical point. The trains here would run mostly empty.
It's already been shown what American's will do with a product that they don't approve of the methods of production. All you have to do is look at GM and their numbers since they became Government Motors.
Maybe it will be built, maybe it won't, but you can bet your ass there has already been a lot of money spent, nothing worthwhile received, and they aren't done spending yet.
Oh yeah, no sh1t, it's been kicked around for a while that it's already cost 800 million, that's in the story. The real question is, Why bother? One of the mandates is that it makes the run in 2 hours 40 min. Why? If you're really in that big a hurry, why not fly? I just ran a quick Yahoo Travel search, and you can fly round trip for less than $150; about an hour and a half each way. Yeah, add an hour or two on to the front of that for check in - what kind of security will they have to get on this thing? How much is that going to add to the time?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Update - as a point of reference, I checked fares for the famous Japanese bullet trains. Although it's difficult to compare apples and rice balls, a 2 1/2 hour run from Tokyo to Osaka costs about $180.
Tidbit from Wikipedia: "...the vast construction costs of the Shinkansen network, particularly the later, less profitable lines often driven more by political interference than actual demand, imposed vast debt servicing costs on JNR that, by 1971, made JNR unprofitable even before depreciation. JNR's Shinkansen-fueled debt eventually ballooned to ¥28 trillion and was an instrumental factor in the company's eventual privatization and breakup."
It is now barely profitable - and those Tokyo-Osaka trains leave EVERY 15 MINUTES through the day.
Probably won't get built but it sure is a timeless tale of corruption.