MA: T-G-I-T-Z-L Mideast High Speed Rail Act of 2013 (Statute)

[Lumine]

Seems pretty good to me, the proposed lines would be incredibly useful, and the proposed lines seem very reasonable. The only thing I'll say is that I hope that just like a line was proposed with the Northeast and the IDS, I would like to see a working and efficient High Speed Rail system across the whole of Atlasia in a few years. This whole project is something that we all need to work hard for.

[Donerail]

For y'all's reference:



Here's my current plan - red preexisting, and then priority stages (blue, green, orange, pink). Although Richmond-Wilson is the one that immediately jumps out at you, Roanoke-Johnson City, Nashville-Louisville, Jonesboro-St. Louis, and Memphis-Chicago are all possibilities for interregional cooperation.

[Gass3268]

Here are the costs:

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[Gass3268]

Any thoughts on these cost estimates?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

What are the red vs. black costs?

[Gass3268]

What are the red vs. black costs?

The black costs look like how much each mile would coast for each of the two possible max speeds while the red costs are what the total coasts would be for each line.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

So what's the final cost that you want us to look at, and where are you proposing that the money comes from?

[Gass3268]

So what's the final cost that you want us to look at, and where are you proposing that the money comes from?

It really depends what we want to do. We could choose to construct all of these lines at once or do it one line at a time. Also we need to choose what we want to max speed to be. If we want the max speed to be at 120 mph the total cost would be 68.283 billion and if we want the max speed to be at 220 mph the total coast would be 116.158 billion.

I was thinking part of it could come from asking the Federal Government to give us some stimulus money in order to build these lines. Also ticket sales and possibly a localized tax could help pay for the construction.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I mean, cost of construction alone for these lines is $68.283B, which is almost 3 times our entire transportation budget.  I'm just wondering where we're going to get all this money from.

[Gass3268]

That is part of the reason why the original legislation only included the one line, but everyone else wanted more regional diversity in who would get served. I would be fine with just having the Chicago > Fort Wayne > Toledo > Cleveland line and the offshoot to Detroit. This would cost 20.1012 billion. We could construct the other lines at another point. I would like to know the opinions of the other legislators and the Governor. 

[Lumine]

Perhaps using the transportation budget (with some allocations from the budget surplus) to begin the construction of a single line each year (the first one in 2014, the next one in 2015, and so on). Thus, we wouldn't have a charge to heavy for our budget and the lines would be ready in a reasonably short period of time. I would prefer building it with a max speed of 220 mph, but the costs prove too many, 120 mph would be fine for the beginning of the project.

[ZuWo]

That is part of the reason why the original legislation only included the one line, but everyone else wanted more regional diversity in who would get served. I would be fine with just having the Chicago > Fort Wayne > Toledo > Cleveland line and the offshoot to Detroit. This would cost 20.1012 billion. We could construct the other lines at another point. I would like to know the opinions of the other legislators and the Governor. 

Having seen the GM's cost estimates, I think your initial idea was not too bad. We should aim to build all of these railway lines at some point in the not too distant future but it seems obvious that we cannot tackle all of them at the same time. $20 billion is a very large sum for our budget.

[Talleyrand]

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Senator Ben has introduced this bill to the Senate legislative queue, so depending on how it is received by the Senate, I think we should shift our focus to to the first two lines proposed in the GM's analysis, particularly the first one (the second is far more expendable).

For reference, here is the 2009 bill passed by the Senate. https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/The_High_Speed_Rail_Act

[Gass3268]

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Senator Ben has introduced this bill to the Senate legislative queue, so depending on how it is received by the Senate, I think we should shift our focus to to the first two lines proposed in the GM's analysis, particularly the first one (the second is far more expendable).

For reference, here is the 2009 bill passed by the Senate. https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/The_High_Speed_Rail_Act

This is a good development!

Talleyrand: What line do you want us to focus on?

[ZuWo]

Excellent, this will be a great help for the Mideast. I love pork.

[Gass3268]

Yummy yummy pork!

[Talleyrand]

I would prefer we focus on the line connecting Chicago to Cleveland, and if we have enough revenue to support it, perhaps we can add an extension to Detroit on it. For the sake of homogeneity, I'd prefer our train speeds to match those of the preexisting lines, since they will be connected to them anyway, if they're going to be built.

[Talleyrand]

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Here's an amendment to clean things up, based somewhat on the federal act. In addition, the name of the act is made more appropriate.

[tmthforu94]

I don't see a purpose in removing my and Gass' name since we were the ones behind this idea and wrote it, but it's not a big deal either way.

[Gass3268]

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How about this?

[Lumine]

Very reasonable and attractive, but I don't think we should change the name at all. This Act was created by Gass and Tmthforu, and they deserve proper credit for it.

Still, I'm completely fine with it!

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

That's good for me.  I don't really think my name should be in the title, as I didn't do anything with it, but I don't really care one way or another.  Gass, it's your bill, so you can make a friendly amendment.  If that's the version you want to go to a vote, let me know and we'll get a final vote going

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Gass?

[Gass3268]

It's a friendly amendment.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

We'll now take a final vote on the bill.  Members will vote AYE, NAY, or ABSTAIN.  This will be a 48-hour vote.

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