Harry Reid's Pet Bullet Train Project

[GuyPinestra]

If we switched from over the road trucking to cross country trains, we wouldn't need to buy foreign oil. But, since the GObP/R's are in the pockets of Big Oil, they'll never allow it. The very last thing they want is "independence from foreign oil".

Before you rw's start whining, it makes uncommonly good sense to retrain AMERICANS for jobs of the future instead of keeping them dirt poor and tied to the past. Truck drivers, as well as others associated with the trucking industry could do very well with a modern train system. Everyone from the drivers themselves to those who now sell tires, mechanics and on and on and on.

But no ... The GObP/R's pay huge oil companies tax-funded subsidies and then Boehner hands out their kickbacks. He doesn't do it on the floor of congress any more. Now its at the congressional tavern.

Vote Republican - Keep China green and Big Oil rolling in our tax money.

Trains burn diesel oil. Moron.

Nope, electricity.

Yup, they are diesel/electric. The diesel engines create the electricity that moves the trains.

 

[editec]

“Woo! Woo! Next stop, bankruptcy!”

Early last year Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the administration’s intention to sink $53 billion into high speed rail systems in the coming years. That news must have invigorated Harry Reid more than a cowboy poetry reading under his pomegranate trees, because now taxpayers might end up on the hook for an amount of money that could make Solyndra look insignificant:

On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.

Privately held DesertXpress is on the verge of landing a $4.9 billion loan from the Obama administration to build the 150 mph train, which could be a lifeline for a region devastated by the housing crash or a crap shoot for taxpayers weary of Washington spending.

The vast park-and-ride project hinges on the untested idea that car-loving Californians will drive about 100 miles from the Los Angeles area, pull off busy Interstate 15 and board a train for the final leg to the famous Strip.[...]

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has publicly blessed the train — it means jobs, he says — and it’s cleared several regulatory hurdles in Washington.

Yet even as the Federal Railroad Administration considers awarding what would be, by far, the largest loan of its type, its own research warns it’s difficult to predict how many people will ride the train, a critical measure of financial survival, an Associated Press review found.Michelle Malkin

Sounds pretty PORKIE to me, too.

 

[Decepticon]

You conservatives DO know that rail is the most efficient type of transportation, right?
Costs the leasts? Uses the least fuel?

No wonder you're against it. It saves people money that COULD be lining some CEO's pocket.

 

[Claudette]

I know we taxpayers have been bailing that AMTRAK out for decades now.

High speed trains work if you have paying passengers. If not then the taxpayers will foot the bill just like for AMTRAK.

Unless of course the highsped train is privately owned which I doubt will be the case.

 

[DiamondDave]

You conservatives DO know that rail is the most efficient type of transportation, right?
Costs the leasts? Uses the least fuel?

No wonder you're against it. It saves people money that COULD be lining some CEO's pocket.

Yet passenger rail needs bailed out continually... and tickets cost more than airfare, unless in cases where local train transit from rural to city of less than 50 miles are SUBSIDIZED by taxes (which you are paying for anyway)

Lest we forget that NONE of the existing rails will support high speed, and none of the current layout of land used by existing rail could be reused for high speed rails...

It is a feeble and pointless effort in populated areas... that would be nothing more than a government power grab and pet project with kickbacks

 

[Decepticon]

You conservatives DO know that rail is the most efficient type of transportation, right?
Costs the leasts? Uses the least fuel?

No wonder you're against it. It saves people money that COULD be lining some CEO's pocket.

Yet passenger rail needs bailed out continually... and tickets cost more than airfare, unless in cases where local train transit from rural to city of less than 50 miles are SUBSIDIZED by taxes (which you are paying for anyway)

Lest we forget that NONE of the existing rails will support high speed, and none of the current layout of land used by existing rail could be reused for high speed rails...

It is a feeble and pointless effort in populated areas... that would be nothing more than a government power grab and pet project with kickbacks

Yes, because they NEVER put commuter rail in places like Germany, England, Japan or any other densely populated areas of the world and it works horrible there, right?

Know what you get when you don't even TRY because you've already convinced yourself it will fail?
Nothing.

Good job. Way to advocate for not even TRYING to improve your community and country.

 

[DiamondDave]

You conservatives DO know that rail is the most efficient type of transportation, right?
Costs the leasts? Uses the least fuel?

No wonder you're against it. It saves people money that COULD be lining some CEO's pocket.

Yet passenger rail needs bailed out continually... and tickets cost more than airfare, unless in cases where local train transit from rural to city of less than 50 miles are SUBSIDIZED by taxes (which you are paying for anyway)

Lest we forget that NONE of the existing rails will support high speed, and none of the current layout of land used by existing rail could be reused for high speed rails...

It is a feeble and pointless effort in populated areas... that would be nothing more than a government power grab and pet project with kickbacks

Yes, because they NEVER put commuter rail in places like Germany, England, Japan or any other densely populated areas of the world and it works horrible there, right?

Know what you get when you don't even TRY because you've already convinced yourself it will fail?
Nothing.

Good job. Way to advocate for not even TRYING to improve your community and country.

Are you going to give up your land willingly.. or just authorize the government to confiscate it to use as they see fit for high speed, high cost commuter rail??

 

[DiamondDave]

Guess the troll did not want to answer that