California High-Speed Rail Thread

[KingSweden]

I suppose you hate highways, too? And it is a strange assertion to claim only two high speed rail lines in the world are profitable, considering that the German ICE network regularly posts a profit, as does Korea's KTX, Japan's Shinkansen (overall), France's TGV... most of them, actually. So that's baseless.

It is utterly ludicrous when you you consider we pay upwards of $100 billion in gas taxes, tolls, and other fees each year to maintain roads, on top of $50 billion in state and local taxes, $10 billion to the Federal Highway Trust, and up to $20 billion to make up for the shortfall after all that. Meanwhile we give $3 billion to the FAA, and $8 billion for cruise ships, not to mention the billions we pour into airports. Compare that to the $1.5 billion the government spends on Amtrak per year. It's peanuts. If NIMBYs and ideologically deranged people get out of the way and allow the CAHSR to build its network along a logical route and in a reasonable timeframe there shouldn't be a problem.

I fear smallmindedness will win the day once again, however. Which seems to be the trend in this country these days.

^^^^ this