Where I'll Be

[kevin_standlee]

Tuesday evening at 7PM in Mountain View there will be a public hearing on High Speed Rail. I hope to survive through to the public comment period, although the fact that I have an early-morning meeting on Wednesday isn't going to make things much fun.

Ironically, due to transit schedules, in order to be able to attend the hearing about rail transportation, I'm going to have to drive to work tomorrow instead of take the train.

Comments

[querldox.livejournal.com]

I have to be against it at this point. The current cost estimate is about $100 billion. SF to LA is about 400 miles. So $250 million a mile. $25 million for a tenth of a mile. That's just insane.

Assume each trip manages to make $100 profit (doubtful, given what one can get with respect to air fares and driving costs). It'd take 1 billion trips to break even. California has about 30 million people, so each person would have to take 333 trips. Um, yeah.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

The same kind of math could have been used to "prove" why building the state highway system wasn't worth the investment, either. Also, no infrastructure project should every have been built, since none of them pay for themselves in direct revenue.

The trips are going to happen. We're going to have to spend a whole lot of public money no matter what, either in building/expanding roads, building more airports, or providing more cost-effective alternatives. I think rail is the better alternative.