Beware of mis-information being spread around about HSR - get the facts!
A tiny, well-funded group is making baseless claims against high speed rail to advocate for the status quo - the same status quo that has brought us gridlock, high fuel costs and severe pollution. Most of the "research" and quotes online and in the media can be linked to just three extreme, super conservative, anti-rail groups: The Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation and the Heritage Foundation. Intertwined with them spreading the same misinformation are also the following: the Independent Institute, the Buckeye Institute, the Public Purpose, the Cascade Policy Institute, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Enterprise Institute, etc.
FACTS: On Transportation Subsidies
According to the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts’ Subsidy Scopes program, between 2000 and 2009, passenger rail received a total direct expenditure subsidy (public expenditure minus revenue, like ticket sales, concessions, advertising, etc.) of $2.4 billion. During the same period, highways received a total direct expenditure subsidy (public expenditure minus revenue like gas taxes, tolls, taxes on tires, etc.) of $360 billion.
San Francisco Chronicle 8/3/11: "Vranich makes stuff up. Adrianne Moore, vice president of policy at the Reason Foundation, says the Europeans are abandoning rail in favor of driving and flying. Nonsense. Transportation market share of European high-speed rail lines has grown steadily and many are near 80 percent. Rick Geddes, a professor at Cornell University who is also on Reason's payroll, said on National Public Radio that the California system can't be powered by renewable energy - except that the Hoover Dam generates four times what the train needs. The Reason Foundation is funded by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, the American Petroleum Institute, Delta Airlines, the National Air Transportation Association and, of course, the Koch Family Foundation. They know what will happen once Americans, furious about gas prices and the way airlines treat them, experience electrically powered 200-mph trains. But big oil and aviation can't attack high-speed rail directly - that would be an obvious attempt to abort competition. So they hire a "think tank."
Reason collaborates on research with James Moore III, a transportation engineering professor at University of Southern California. They parrot Reason's "train to nowhere" nonsense, a phrase they apply to all rail projects. It's especially absurd in this case, because interim services will have high-speed rail trains slow and reach the Bay Area on existing rail lines. Reason's minions claim there's no business plan or ridership figures. Except that anyone can go on the California High-Speed Rail Authority website and download them.
Where does the corporate cash and propaganda end and the legitimate criticism begin? It was impossible to know in Florida, where high-speed rail was killed using the same techniques.
A modern 200-mile-per-hour rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco will change America's transportation paradigm. Just like in Europe and Asia, California will develop a profitable system joining all its cities. Nearby states, such as Nevada and Arizona, will link into the network, just like European countries did after France established its network. Jet airplanes will be used for what they were intended: long-distance travel. Automobile use will be reduced. This will save millions of barrels of oil. And that's the real reason these lobbyists want it stopped." Read the story | Reuters | Sun Sentinel | CA HSR Blog | Bloomberg
"A single high speed rail line can carry the equivalent of a 10-lane freeway, can be built for much less cost, is cheaper to operate, uses a tiny fraction of the energy (from electricity, not oil), and operates without congestion or delays - especially during rush hour and peak travel days."
High cost, high energy use, low capacity
Moderate cost, low energy, huge capacity
"High speed rail can carry 10,000 passengers an hour in each direction" -Denis Doute, SNCF
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US HSR. Making it happen.
Roads have been heavily subsidized for 50+ years - According to Federal Highway Administration Statistics
Rail systems in America have been under attack since the 1930s. Watch "Taken for a Ride":
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