Is Hi Speed Rail a vaste of money, I vote YES!!!

In my last post, i promised you a look at the proposed Hi Speed Rail projects that the O Bama administration has proposed. IMHO this is a waste of our tax dollars and should be stopped.

Intercity passenger rail is a waste of money. It's time has passed and it should be allowed to die a merciful death. I mentioned in a recent post that bueach ticket on Amtrak costs the taxpayers a $50 subsidy to Amtrak. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, there are few trains that have enough usage to justify the expense. At a time of tight state revenues, Amtrak is going to the states for additional funding.
According to a recent article in Trains magazine, all routes of 750 miles or less will be required to get state funding.

Proponents of passenger rail point out that every part tranportation system has governement subsidies. My question is this do we really need to fund something where there is little demand? Yes, our airports are overcrowded, but so what.
Why not let intercity buses pick up the slack. They can run on our existing highway system, they are run by private enterprise and turn a profit. It is far easier to add additional bus routes than to lay new rail.

It is not to say that I am totally against passenger rail. I am totally in favor of spending money where it works. That is in areas of high population density and commuter rail. Commuter rail reduces traffic congestion, eliminates the parking hassles and is in general a good alternative to private car travel. Here in the Northeast corridor we have enough population density to make it work. Aceela has become a popular alternative to air travel between Boston and Washington D.C.
How many other parts of the country have this much population? Answer, None!

Proponents of Hi Speed rail also look to Europe and Japan as examples. In both cases the population density is there and the price of gasoline is much higher than what we pay here. People would have to be forced out of their cars by increased gasoline taxes to make it work here. My question is, why? Gasoline taxes would have a negative impact on the entire economy. Just look at what happened when fuel spiked recently. That should give you your answer.

If government want to spend our money to upgrade the existing rail system, fine.
A partnership with the freight railroads would work wonders. If we can get more trucks off the highways, we all win. Less traffic and less pollution. A train can get better fuel economy than trucks. Upgrading the system will allow more shippers to see rail as a viable alternative.

Like health care, we have a good transportation system in place. It may need some tweaking, but it is not broken. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and don't spend my tax money to fix it.