Fast Trains Will Run Over Opposition.
The high-speed rail project in California continues to slog ahead and, regardless of the obstacles, I’m convinced it will not only be completed, but it will be an immediate success. That may seem overly optimistic, but it isn’t. The California project will succeed because high-speed rail works. It’s just that simple.
Because only a very small percentage of Americans have ever been off the North American continent, only a tiny fraction of our population has ever actually traveled on a high-speed train. That doesn’t faze most Americans, however, and we continue to hear the same old tired objections to the California project from people who know nothing whatsoever about the subject:
“I’m not going to ride it, so I don’t want my tax dollars paying for it.”
“If it has to be subsidized by the taxpayers, I’m against it.”
“Nobody’s going to ride the damn thing.”
“It’s just another damn gummint boondoggle.”
“People will be afraid to travel 200 miles an hour. It’s just too dangerous.”
“It’s too expensive; we can’t afford to build it.”
Looking at all of them at the same time, what strikes me right away is that there isn’t one argument in the bunch that’s based on solid information. Not one. Each can be refuted with rational arguments and hard facts.
But trying to change the mind of anyone who believes any or all of those phony arguments is really a waste of time and energy. Those people are uninformed or misinformed, and many are willfully ignorant. Some, particularly those frauds from the libertarian “think tanks” posing as transportation experts, oppose every government supported transportation project as a matter of political or social philosophy.
While every one of those so-called arguments is wrong, arguing with the people spouting them is a waste of time, because once our first high-speed train begins running, the argument will be over. Governor Jerry Brown from California understood that long ago and he’s taken the right approach to opponents of the project. He’s said, in so many words, “Let ‘em complain all they want. We building it!”
My kinda guy!
Regarding your hero, California governor Jerry Brown, doesn’t he preside over a state that is several billion dollars in debt already, most likely driven significantly by government employee defined-benefit pension plans?
I certainly support, and want to see expanded, the conventional rail long-distance system (the kind of passenger rail I read about
in ALL ABOARD – THE COMPLETE NORTH AMERICAN TRAIN TRAVEL GUIDE).
I would like to see ONE TENTH the amount of the projected cost of that California high speed rail project spent on the long distance system.
And meantime, yes, count me among the skeptics of spending $60+ billion of taxpayer dollars on an L.A. to San Francisco route.
I’m also not sure California should be help up as an example of good state government.
Once again, let us agree to disagree. And I hope we both live long enough to see which one of us got it right.
Have you read chapter 16 in All Aboard? I won’t live long enough to see this in full operation, but I can dream.
Your observation is 100% accurate, Jim. When they build it, the riders will come. As a tax paying Californian, I whole heartedly support the project. I have ridden the Eurostar and the TGV and know how comfortable and most importantly fast these trains are.
These are desperately needed here in California. Flying between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin is a chore at best. A flight time of under an hour usually takes closer to five when counting getting to the airport and then going through the security zoo. Driving is not much better. Highway 5 is nothing more than a long demolition derby interjected by moronic drivers who would never survive driving the German Autobahn. Highway 99 is slightly better, but you pay for that with a longer drive time. While highway 101, a scenic wonder, will take almost twice the time as the 5-6 hours on highway 5.
Ah, but the opposition to HSR… Quite a few are the corporate farms. Yes the same farms that killed their fields adjacent to highway 5 and posting signs reading “Stop the congressional approved drought”. Hmmm. Five plus years of drought and congress can’t pass any legislation, but they brought you the drought. Their newest signs read “Dams or Choo-Choos”. Wow.
Thanks again Jim. We must get the HSR finished and the sooner the better.
Good heavens!”Dams or Choo-choos”? That’s really outrageous!
That is what is going on in California. I wish you would prevail upon and allow the state HSR PR people to use your chapter 16 ALL ABOARD to educate the people of California to the benefits of HSR.