The Ohio project never made sense in the first place. The “3-C” route would have linked Cincinnati,

Last month, the California State Senate hotels new york followed the State Assembly to vote to authorize the issuance of $4.6 billion in state bond funds to begin construction on the first phase of a planned California High Speed Rail, including millions of dollars for local rail modernization in the LA basin and the San Francisco peninsula. Cue conservative outrage:
For those of you who don't know, Howard Jarvis is was the conservative Republican who pushed through California's disastrous Proposition 13 back in 1978. The one that gutted California's top-notch hotels new york public education system by depriving it of millions of dollars of property tax revenue. With a real boondoggle under their belt, they really shouldn't be going after a manufactured one.
"[California] State Sen. Joe Simitian's district office near Stanford's campus is nestled among shops sporting excruciatingly cute names ("A Street Bike Named Desire," "Mom's the Word" maternity wear) intended to make the progressive gentry comfortable with upscale consumption by presenting it as whimsical. This community surely has its share of advanced thinkers who believe trains hotels new york are wonderful because they are not cars (rampant individualism; people going wherever and whenever they want, unsupervised).
Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker hotels new york rejected $810 million in federal money for a 78-mile hotels new york high-speed rail project paralleling Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and Madison. Ohio's Republican Gov. John Kasich rejected $400 million for a high-speed (well, about automobile speed) train paralleling Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Cincinnati. hotels new york Florida's Republican Gov. Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion for 90 miles of high-speed rail paralleling Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando. In faith-based transportation policy, rail worshipers believe people will park their cars in Tampa and then rent cars in Orlando.
[California Governor] Brown's reverence for his rail bauble is fanaticism. Or perhaps filial piety: His father, governor from 1959 to 1967, built much of the freeway and water infrastructure for postwar California. When the son was first elected governor 38 years ago, he seemed exotic; now he embodies progressivism's banality. Then he wanted a California space program; now he is fixated on railroads, a 19th-century technology. His prescription for California's ailments is higher taxes and expensive trains."
That whole "19th century technology" spiel is intended only to unfairly denigrate rail technology. The benefits of public transportation, including rail, is tremendous, and is more efficient than automobiles in shuttling massive amounts of passengers from Point A to Point B. Not to mention hotels new york that by his logic, his beloved car becomes "19th-century technology" as well.
Will also argues that Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida's rejection of rail funds clearly means that California should hotels new york follow their lead. For a self-proclaimed lover of individualism, that isn't a very independent course of action. There is an important distinction between the reasons why those states' hotels new york projects failed, while California's is on its way to success.
The Ohio project never made sense in the first place. The "3-C" route would have linked Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland at top speeds of 79 mph, with average speeds half that. Those speeds are absolutely pitiful, especially hotels new york considering Ohioan highways aren't particularly congested. It is unfair to compare California's proposal to this miserable excuse for a "high speed" rail.
Florida's planned Tampa to Orlando route was far more promising. It had all the permits and environmental evaluations conducted, and the government already owned the right-of-way. It was shovel-ready. Flying hotels new york at 170 mph down the middle of busy Interstate 4, the train was to be President Obama's showpiece project hotels new york to advertise to the rest of the country the very real utility and promise of high speed rail. Florida had an unemployment rate of roughly 12% at the time, and construction jobs were projected to be in the thousands. Private sector firms were lobbying to be the first one to build a high speed rail line in the United States. Private investors were publicly interested. hotels new york Former Republican turned Independent Governor Charlie Crist had lobbied hard for the stimulus funds, but the plan promised too much hope for Obama's ambitious high speed rail project, and made too much sense for Republican Governor Rick Scott. hotels new york He killed hotels new york the project, even over the objections of Florida Rep. John Mica (R), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who said Gov. Scott's decision "was a huge setback for the State of Florida, our transportation, economic development, and important tourism industry".
Wisconsin's hotels new york high speed rail proposal was killed in a similar fashion as Florida's: a Republican hotels new york governor seeking to gain some easy short-term political capital. The federal government had already committed $810 million dollars to the project before Gov. Walker axed it. Funnily enough, hotels new york after those funds were redistributed, (and after the Walker administration completely ignored his state's hotels new york ten-year contracts with the company) the Spanish firm Talgo announced that it was going to shut down its Milwaukee train-manufacturing operations and relocate (and bring the jobs with it) to a state more friendly to high-speed rail.
In discussing California's planned high speed rail, it's always good to know a little bit about California's history with large-scale infrastructure projects. Take the iconic Golden Gate Bridge for example. Who today could imagine San Francisco's skyline today without the brilliant red suspension bridge fading into the distant fog? In fact, the bridge almost didn't get built. The Southern Pacific Company and its subsidiary, the Golden Gate Ferry Company campaigned heavily against the proposal, even filing a lawsuit to prevent the competition. The Department of War was concerned that the bridge would interfere with navy traffic. And so-called experts proclaimed that such a bridge couldn't be built across the treacherous waters and blinding fog of the Golden Gate strait. Over all these objections, the California legislature approved a $30 million bond measure to begin constructing the bridge. In 1929, Wall Street crashed, hotels new york and no one was willing to buy the bonds until 1932, when A.P. Gianninni, founder of the San Francisco branch Bank of America, bought the entire issue for the "good of San Francisco". Today, it is impossible to imagine San Francisco without the iconic Golden Gate bridge guarding hotels new york the bay, yet it would never have happened had the Southern hotels new york Pacific Company hotels new york succeeded in eliminating its competition (San Francisco would still be using ferry technology to move people across the bay!). Or if the "experts" succeeded in demoralizing the project because it was "impossible". Or if the politicians decided to defer to special interests. hotels new york Or if one wealthy banker decided he needed to horde his vast wealth instead of investing it into the local economy. Had the corporations, fear mongers, or special interests had it their way, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge would not exist; at least, not the way it is today with such historical and cultural significance. There is a lesson to be learned from this story.
This brings us back to California's high speed rail proposal. hotels new york Californian voters originally passed Proposition 1A in 2008 by a 5-point margin, authorizing the state to issue $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to fund the first phase of high speed rail. (The entire project was projected to have an overall cost of $45 billion.) In 2009, then-Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger applied and received $3.6 billion of federal high speed rail stimulus hotels new york funding. In 2010, the federal government had diverted an additional $3.2 billion from the states that had rejected high speed rail funds. The plan was going smoothly.
Suddenly, the projected cost had unexpectedly ballooned to a scary $100 billion. Gov. Brown took action and appointed Dan Richard to the California High Speed Rail Authority, who immediately launched public relations campaign to repair the embattled authority's perception with the public and to seek more public input on improving efficiency. Help also came from Bay Area politicians Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, State Senator Joe Simitian, and State Assemblyman Rich Gordon, who proposed a plan for the high speed rail to share tracks with existing Caltrain and Amtrack right-of-ways. The projected cost settled to a much more reasonable $68.5 billion.
"For the past century, major transportation projects — from bridges to rail — have always been funded with federal hotels new york dollars. Federal government–supported bonds enabled the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge to be built, for example. And worldwide, major high-speed rail systems are generally built with funding from national governments.
However, given our national political dynamics, where a significant majority of elected leaders do not support government investment in domestic hotels new york infrastructure, let alone in non-auto modes of travel, it is quite possible that significant federal investment will not materialize. This is not to be taken lightly: A future for the United hotels new york States without major federal support for transportation projects is frightening and would lead to the further degradation of infrastructure and the loss of the nation's economic competitiveness.
Unpleasant as it is to contemplate, this is a very tangible scenario we must prepare for. The good news is that even without federal support, California can pay for a high-speed rail system with resources generated within the state. "
But more importantly, the people of California have an even greater reason to celebrate. As the world's ninth largest economy, we are by far the largest hotels new york single economic entity worldwide without a high-speed rail infrastructure built or under construction. No longer, we are finally catching up with the rest of the world, including Algeria, Bulg