Dear All;
In Sundays SF Examiner they had an article on how the local transit agencies BART Muni and Cal Trains could hardly wait to get their cut of the take of the new rail bond for transit improvement projects to tie-in with the high-speed rail. You certainly didn't think the money was to build the high-speed rail alone without cuts of the take getting spread around.
I mentioned a few things about the high-speed rail with a little bit of wry humor at the end of the LTE. The SF Examiner agreed and published with affiliation.
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno
October 15, 2008
"Rail costs underestimated"
Local transit agencies expecting tooth-fairy Proposition 1A Rail bond largesse from the pig-in-a-poke Toonerville Trolley high-speed S.F.-to-L.A. rail service need a reality check (“Transit eager for rail bond,” Oct. 12).
High-speed rail zealots’ claims stretch credulity: 450,000 jobs created, up to 117 million passengers a year, 200 mph, 2½-hour transit time between S.F. and L.A. for $70.
The biggest, most disingenuous claim: “It will pay for itself after the first $9.95 billion bond issue.”
This disregards the economic and passenger outcomes of Japan’s and France’s established high-speed rail services. The Amtrak N.Y.-to-Washington line through major population centers only carries 3 million passengers with a $172 ticket.
With a budget deficit and Depression-like hard times, vote no on this high-speed acid-trip fantasy.
– Ron Getty, Chair, Initiatives Committee Libertarian Party of San Francisco