America Is Taking a High-Speed Train to Bankruptcy
Every dollar wasted on political pork, fraud, and poorly considered infrastructure makes the country’s fiscal situation even worse.
On December 8, the federal government made two seemingly disconnected but inexorably linked announcements that do not bode well for America's future.
First, the Department of Transportation hyped an $8.2 billion grant for passenger rail projects.
Second, the Congressional Budget Office revealed that the federal government racked up a $383 billion deficit in just the first two months of FY 2024, with interest payments increasing by a shocking 65 percent year-over-year.
Washington's continued refusal to rein in wasteful and unnecessary deficit spending has led to an unfocused, unaccountable, and increasingly unaffordable federal government that threatens to derail the economy.
To see why, start with the rail money—the bulk of which will go to California.
The state's High-Speed Rail Authority will receive $3.1 billion to continue its singularly awful 520-mile boondoggle from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Following its initial approval in a 2008 referendum, the project has racked up an impressive list of failures over the course of 15 years, including an increase in the estimated cost from $33 billion to over $128 billion; a delay in the estimated completion date from 2020 to at least 2033; and a 2022 New York Times expose revealing many details of California's staggering incompetence and overregulation.
While the project has been beset with then-unforeseen problems, it was primarily undermined by fundamental flaws that should have doomed it from the beginning.
"Should have" because unfortunately both California and the federal government refuse to let this boondoggle die. Even with Washington's latest $3.1 billion injection, the project needs an additional $7 billion just to complete its initial 117-mile segment from Merced to Bakersfield.
Each additional dollar spent makes the project increasingly resistant to criticism or elimination, as the sunk-cost fallacy ensures that politicians will feel obligated to see it through to the bitter end.
The Biden administration is also gambling $3 billion on a high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas, spearheaded by the Brightline corporation.
Brightline, known for its privately funded service in Florida, recently opened its high-speed line from Miami to Orlando. The project's relatively smooth construction and more reasonable cost put it in strong contrast with the ongoing debacle in California, as Reason's Natalie Dowzicky explained in September.
However, success in Florida does not guarantee a similar outcome for the L.A.-to-Vegas venture.
Mountainous western terrain alone will add complexity and costs not seen in the Sunshine State. Add in mountainous bureaucratic and legal burdens from California's Environmental Quality Act, along with assorted cost-increasing mandates that come from accepting federal funding, and Brightline's plans could go up in smoke.
The Biden administration's total $8.2 billion rail "investment" flows from the 2021 infrastructure package, which was riddled with budget gimmicks and slush funds from the start and looks even worse with the administration's implementation.
The infrastructure bill was part of an unprecedented $7.5 trillion spending spree from 2020 to 2022. This deficit-fueled bender was a key factor behind the ongoing surge of inflation and, in turn, can be blamed for the recent interest rate spike.
Every dollar wasted on political pork, fraud, and poorly considered infrastructure makes the country's fiscal situation even worse.
America's $33.8 trillion gross national debt is the result of Washington's failure to properly budget and prioritize federal activity over the course of decades, although half of the total has been added since October 2013.
The Congressional Budget Office report helps to underline the near-term severity of the problem. Due to the interest rate jump, net federal interest payments rose 65 percent in October and November compared to the year before. Interest payments could eclipse defense spending as early as this year and help drive deficits to unsustainable levels.
Coupled with over $75 trillion in unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, the federal government's finances pose a tremendous threat to the country's economic prospects.
One small step in the right direction would be for Washington to stop bilking taxpayers for the sake of rail projects that might never be completed, let alone come close to being worth the cost.
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Project Gravy Train
Does the train cut through the Big Rock Candy Mountain?
Trump’s wall does…and it only costs $50 billion to stop Mexican turtles from entering America. Those are some bad tortugas. 😉
If only it was Mexicans. It’s the people from all the countries who want us destroyed coming across in droves.
Is it still only trump’s wall now that Biden has cleared a bureaucratic path to accelerate construction of a portion of it in Texas?
Don’t get me wrong, the original concept that trump was pushing for the border wall hit the trifecta of being the Perfect Big Government Project; couldn’t actually be done (so much of the border isn’t accessible to the heavy equipment needed to to the work), wouldn’t actually achieve its purpose (so many illegals are visa-overstays, and those coming from South/Central America would just start coming in via ship from Panama like Asian human smugglers have done it for a long time), and had a completely unrealistic plan to pay for it all (Mexico was never going to be either willing or able to cover the cost).
Biden sure likes trains.
Here in Florida, Brightline trains have killed a lot of people.
They also have metal detectors and do not allow guns, even in your baggage.
I go to Miami once every month.
I will not be taking Brightline as I want my gun with me when I go to Miami.
You also have to add in the cost of an Uber ride in Miami, and the cost of parking or an Uber ride to get to the terminal in Orlando. (it’s at the airport!)
Yep. Train travel can’t be attractive unless it connects easily to attractive local public transportation. If it’s difficult or expensive to get around in your destination city without your car, most people would prefer to, or would need to, drive.
That’s also the reason why (assuming intercity train travel returns) it is a far higher priority for cities to become walk or public transport friendly than for govt to fund choochoo trains. If only because returning cities to being walk/transit friendly will change the likely destinations/stations of intercity travel.
Many things that we do are not easily reversible. Eisenhower was really angry that the Interstate system quickly turned into a development/crony boondoggle. That the I’s plowed right thru to the city core leading to mass eminent domain, neighborhood demolition for the benefit of commuters. Instead of the autobahn approach (which Eisenhower believed he had proposed) of stopping the I’s at a ring-road and being truly an intercity or interstate. Much of that eminent domain for highways to was the passenger rail lines that came into city centers.
How do you reverse that stuff? It’s all just broken now.
“…That’s also the reason why (assuming intercity train travel returns) it is a far higher priority for cities to become walk or public transport friendly than for govt to fund choochoo trains…”
You walk or take a bus chicken little; I’m driving.
Brightline putting the terminal at/near the major airport is actually a smart move. That location already has the parking/ground transport infrastructure to handle inbound/outbound mass transit as opposed to having to develop it around a terminal located somewhere else.
Those transport/parking costs involved with taking HSR are no different for those who fly to the same destination, the main alternative to avoid uber/taxi/parking/rental car costs on a trip would be to drive there. If the train is going for-real 150+ MPH and doesn’t stop too many times along the way, it’s going to save a lot of time vs driving and the traveler has to make the choice as to whether that exchange is worth it for themselves.
A tree killed 4 people in a car the other day…let’s chop all the trees down!! And ban cars too!!
Biden is Amtrak’s #1 frequent traveler ever. He commuted from Wilmington to Washington every day. The train station in Wilmington is now named for him.
Amtrak allows firearms only in checked baggage, similar to the rules on airplanes. You don’t want it any other way.
I don’t think anyone can rightfully claim the title of “Senator” until they’ve managed to get their name put on at least one building that the government has paid to construct/repair/renovate/expand. Maybe not by the Constitution, but by the culture among the occupants of the Chamber….
Why? A hijacked train can’t go anywhere but where the rail goes. It’s not like someone could hijack a train slam it into building … unless the rail ends at a building wall.
Good to see the GOP standing up to this nonsense.
*looks around*
Never mind.
Exactly. No spending constraints. No audit/control. Not a peep. Hella great the House is now R so we can have split government with checks-and-balances with purse strings firmly in responsible hands.
Uhmm, which party controlled both houses when the infrastructure bill was created and signed into law? What’s that, all but two Republicans in the house voted against the bill? Gee I thought you had a point idiots with your boaf sidez nonsense maybe next time morons.
And all 30 nay votes in the Senate were also Republicans. So the majority of Republican senators voted no, come on surely you guys have a point with your boaf sidez bullshit. I mean if the majority of Republicans voted no in both houses, and only two voted yes in the Senate, it’s totes the Republicans fault it passed.
R controls the House NOW. If they can’t do shit but whine about the past, then wtf good are they? Any drunk on a barstool can whine about what they think someone else did back then.
And btw, they aren’t even whining about what someone else did then. YOU are covering for their incompetence and silence. YOU are the one who NEVER holds them accountable. Never. Under any circumstance. They can always count on your vote can’t they.
What have they done?
They control the house but not the Senate or presidency they can’t do shit unless the other two agree. Fuck, you’re and idiot.
You do have a way with words and great aim regarding the nail.
What can they do? Pass a a budget that gets ignored. Fucking moron.
This project does not have a loco motive?
At this point, it’s gone off the rails.
Folks were able to track this?
The little project that couldn’t?
However, success in Florida does not guarantee a similar outcome for the L.A.-to-Vegas venture.
Doesn’t it, though? Such projects put Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook on the map!
The general effect of new train lines is economic benefits for cities with stations, at the cost of economic decline for nearby cities without stations. These effects are used for political power, and they destroy a lot of wealth in the process.
I think you missed the Simpson reference there. Generally, you catch those.
It will never stop. They are going to inflate the money to oblivion. Prepare accordingly.
Total unfunded liability of the government is about $210 trillion; the biggest part is pension promises to government employees (=vote buying by Democrats).
But the US cannot go “bankrupt” given that it is the world’s reserve currency and fiat money. It can, however, suffer hyperinflation and economic collapse.
How much longer will we remain the reserve currency? Seems the BRIC nations, along with the Middle East are moving away from the dollar.
Maybe wasting others earnings/money and committing fraud *is* the actual point. The ‘Trains’ or ‘Infrastructure’ or etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, endless *excuses* are just that …. *excuses*.
Maybe someone can develop a technology that will allow high speed transportation to bypass the uneven terrain between LA and San Fran like…….. like…….like commercial jets?
Flight, that is crazy talk. No one can perfect heavier than air flying vehicles. And no, I don’t care what those two bike making brothers from Ohio claim.
But hey, there was another engineering boondoggle in Pisa, Italy that’s paid for itself, many times over, as a tourist attraction.
There is no highway between Merced and Bakersfield?
The major use case is between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with some benefits in the central valley. The HSR train will initially go part of the way on conventional rail before switching to the newly built high speed track. For that trip, people are using I-5 or airplanes, both of which are already congested.
Merced and Bakersfield are connected by highway CA-99. The distance is 164 miles downtown-to-downtown, and at 75 MPH (typical speed on California highways) the trip takes 2 hours, 12 minutes. At 50 cents a mile for fuel and maintenance costs, that’s less than $100 to take myself, a few of my family or friends, baggage, bikes, and whatever on a trip down valley.
The California Highspeed Rail Authority advertises the travel time between Merced and Bakersfield as 90 minutes. Adding 15 minutes to drive to the station, 5 to park, arriving 10 minutes early to walk to the platform plus — at the other end — 5 minutes to walk out of the station, 10 minutes to hail an Uber, and 15 to drive to your final destination adds up to a rail travel time of 2 hours, 30 minutes. For Uber or parking at home city let’s say $25, Uber at the destination, $25, and subsidized train tickets $50 for each person in your party. You’ll have to leave the bikes at home.
For a solo commuter, with work to do while riding, the train may make sense. For most trips, a car is faster, cheaper, and more direct.
The only reason this is catching flak is because it’s a passenger rail project. If it was a highway project, no one would blink an eye at any amount of cost overruns. Infrastructure is expensive, but only passenger rail gets the criticism. The initial Interstate bill would have cost hundreds of billions, adjusted for inflation. Surely we can get decent rail service to our busiest corridors?
You sure as heck can… Just as soon as you find enough people *WILLING* to fund it instead of compulsively *STEALING* for it.
Several people died in car crashes on the interstate closest to me the other day—their blood is on your hands!!!
Along with all that other blood spilled because I wouldn’t work endlessly for free and hand-over all my money for the perfect armed-theft life on a cloud club.
to our busiest corridors
Building new routes (or widening existing routes) never ever ever ever reduces congestion. If you want congestion reduced, the only options are add a price/toll and/or reduce required trip length. We don’t want to do the former and we don’t even want to think about doing the latter. So we just build more shit that fails cuz ‘it’ll work this time’.
Further – with the exception of mountain valleys (no alternative route/mode), rail only works for either passenger or freight. Never both. Every country. Because the rail bed requires conflicting things so it needs two of them anyway + massive eminent domain on city land + no passenger volume unless the city is already set up for trains. The US is a freight rail country now.
Maybe a bus system could be intercity – with dedicated (no-access barriers not paint) lane for buses if the goal is to jack up speed. That could divert traffic. But it would become a scam because drivers want to take that lane for themselves (HOV = driver plus two bobbleheads). Thus eliminating the high speed and the ability of buses to go high speed.
Correct. Right wingers are totally okay with massive subsidies to gas guzzlers.
The lefty shit-pile charliehall is totally okay with making up and posting lies.
Fuck off and die, asshole.
If your major concern is trillion dollar deficits, don’t you have bigger fish to fry than $10 billion in HSR funding? This amounts to half of 1% of federal discretionary spending. No qualms about the $800 billion defense budget? That’s half, period.
I’m all for cutting the defense cost but why is it every-time pet-projects of theft gets looked at the very purpose of having a national government gets scrutinized? Are those two things suppose to be equivalent? The only ?real? government is a socialist one or what?
“promote the general Welfare” is right after “provide for the common defence”. I’m simply pointing it out as math. If you’re looking to close a $1,000 billion gap, generally 800 is a better place to start than 10.
We had a surplus by increasing tax revenue and decreasing defense spending…Bush/Cheney ran on slashing tax revenue and jacking up defense spending. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!
Correct. We had four consecutive years of balanced budgets under Clinton. But then came the Bush tax cuts, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the need for bailouts after the banking crisis that Bush’s lack of government regulation caused, the Trump tax cuts, and the need to prop up the economy because of the COVID pandemic whose response Trump botched. All this infrastructure spending is a tiny fraction of what I just described.
Bushes biggest deficit $459B
…and exactly one-year later…
Obama’s biggest deficit $1.4T
Keep spouting your leftard BS…. What is that only 3-TIMES as much.
charliehall is a lying, steaming pile of lefty shit.
Or how about another game….
103rd Congress 93-94[Full-D] & Clinton ($255B), $203B deficit.
104th Congress 95-96[Full-R] & Clinton $164B, $107B deficit.
105th Congress 97-98[Full-R] & Clinton $22B, $-69B deficit.
106th Congress 99-00[Full-R] & Clinton $-126B, $-236 deficit.
107th Congress 01-02[D/R] & Bush $-128B, $158B deficit.
108th Congress 03-04[Full-R] & Bush $378, $413B deficit.
109th Congress 05-06[Full-R] & Bush $318B, $248B deficit.
110th Congress 07-08[Full-D] & Bush $161B, ($459B) deficit.
111th Congress 09-10[Full-D] & Obama ($1.4T), $1.3T deficit.
112th Congress 11-12[D/R] & Obama $1.3T, $1.1T deficit.
113th Congress 13-14[D/R] & Obama $380B, $485B deficit.
114th Congress 15-16[Full-R] & Obama $442B, $585B deficit.
115th Congress 17-18[Full-R] & Trump $665B, $779B deficit.
116th Congress 19-20[R/D] & Trump $984B, ($3.1T) deficit.
117th Congress 21-22[R/D] & Biden $2.8T, $1.4T deficit.
118th Congress 23[D/R] & Biden $1.7T and counting.
One thing is quite obvious you never want a D-majority holding the purse.
An introduction/purpose-statement isn’t law itself and the actual law is “provide for the general welfare of the United States” the very NAME of the federal government which unsurprisingly by anyone but manipulative minds is but a phrase from the taxation clause.
You don’t get to fill in the Constitution just because you think you know what promoting the general Welfare is.
Hey! Look over there!
Yep, diversion.
He should shove his chaff, redirect up his caboose.
The irony is that the article itself is diversionary. My point was that this amount is meaningless to the deficit, so what is the author’s REAL reason for opposition?
More diversion from lying pile of lefty shit.
Agreed, and my first thought on seeing the article title. I agree with much of it, but in the end it seems more like another story designed to push right-wing buttons. Like much of the content on this site, there’s a definite agenda masquerading as reason.
You know who else wanted to force people onto trains?
Thomas the Tank Engine?
Since the worst thing that can happen to spendthrift elected officials is to lose their cushy powerful positions and since they have a less than five percent chance that that will ever happen it’s unlikely that they will ever take responsibility for wrecking the economy. At most they’re playing musical chairs, hoping the disaster won’t strike until after they’ve retired. If they knew that there is a good chance that they would be lined up against the wall by angry citizens when the economic disaster strikes they might take the prospect more seriously.
So let’s recap the technology of the future that is going to save Mother Earth. Wind powered shipping, trains, electric vehicles, solar. What do all of these have in common? None of them are actual new technology and for the most part they have been tried in the past and rejected. Trains are about the only thing that comes close to being economical and that’s only for freight transport. For passenger transport trains are money losers.
Highways are money losers for the government. Over $200 billion annually.
More lies from the steaming pile of lefty shit.
Wow, staggering numbers. If $133B is right, the math says the Govt could have paid for 200 MILLION!!! Round trip plane flights from LA to SF, guess that would be 20-30 years worth, obviously wouldn’t be helpful from an environmental perspective, but makes you wonder if politicians have even the most basic math capabilities.
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