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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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According to the State website the hoped for figure is: The most recent ridership forecasts for the California High-Speed Train Project estimate between 88 – 117 million passengers annually by 2030 for the entire 800-mile high-speed train network connecting Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire, and San Diego. How many people can be carried on a high-speed train? Operating “trainsets” will have multiple cars and will be up to 1,300 feet long, depending on the type of train and the market demand. At peak travel times, trains can be lengthened, or trainsets can be connected, to operate as a single train. The high-speed train could be configured in many different ways either to maximize seating, which would provide seating for up to 1,300 passengers or to provide more space per passenger than a conventional airline seat and provide a café area and other amenities, in which case trains could carry around 950 passengers. http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/faqs/ridership.htm Those numbers mean this train will carry at least 3 times as many as the high speed train on the East Coast. Amtrak claims 3 million per year for Acela Express. My concerns are as follows. The state currently has 304,000 employees. This system claims it will add 450,000 permanent jobs. Was that just a gimmick to get votes. I would say it was. And why should those not benefiting in most of the state be burdened with this tremendous debt? If the cities that want the train and will benefit from the train vote for it. They should pay the bill. Not all the counties that are not in any way going to benefit. The best we can hope for is no one will loan that money to the state with their current financial condition. peer reviews: The FRA and U.C Berkeley studies also produced lower high-speed train ridership
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 07, 2008 6:33 am) The people in charge of this project know the score. They are not the village idiots. They are not going to get into this thing with the intent to lose money.
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Replying to: larsb (Nov 07, 2008 6:29 am) Who might THEY be? This bill was to authorize purchasing bonds for $9.95 Billion. The best hope is no one with half a brain will loan them the money. If you had read the proposal as I have you would see just how lame the calculations are in favor of this boondoggle. They calculated how much gas would be wasted with people sitting for hours in gridlock. Adding that to the revenue of the system. How do we know they were not waiting in gridlock to get into the parking lot of this proposed HST? All that aside. The state cannot afford to add another $45 billion to their debt load. They are HOPING the Feds and big investors will get caught up in the boondoggle. Several Peer Reviews including the one from UC Berkeley are less than encouraging. Then add the lawsuits by environmentalists wanting to protect lands proposed for the train to travel. This is not AZ where you go out in the desert and put up a Coal fired generator or a Nuclear Power Plant. This is CA where the wind, geothermal and solar systems proposed on public lands have been blocked by environmental groups. |
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Replying to: larsb (Nov 07, 2008 6:39 am) I think they are. And they will not lose money. They will get the bond and spend it on studies. They will spread the wealth to the agencies involved and NOTHING will be done when the money has run out. You are blind to reality my friend. When you sit and watch billions wasted on projects that never get off the ground you become a skeptic. This HST project has been draining our coffers since at least 1995. Look at THE State website and the extensive studies and reviews. You think that was all volunteer labor? Almost half the voters know the facts and voted against the proposition. It was voted down before. This time the added just enough lies to convince those that are too lazy to dig deep. "The current high-speed rail plan is a fairy tale," said Adrian Moore, vice president of research at Reason Foundation and the study's project director. "The proposal suggests these high-speed trains will be the fastest ever; the most-ridden ever; the cheapest ever; and will convince millions of Californians they no longer need to drive or fly. "Offering up a best-case scenario is one thing, but actually depending on all of these miracles to happen simultaneously is irresponsible public policy." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/09/28/perspective/z8f5487dadc486544882574c9- 000134a9.txt |
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You guys want to give it a rest and let others comment on how $4... $3 ... er, $2 a gallon gas affects them? Thanks. |
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 07, 2008 7:02 am) The rail is designed to save drivers from spending $2 or $3 or $5 a gallon on gas. |
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 07, 2008 7:02 am) I'm glad for that. 
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 07, 2008 7:42 am) I was able to fill my tank from just under half the other day for $22 and then a couple days after that I was able to fill 8.9 gallons for $17ish. It's kind of nice. |
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 07, 2008 7:02 am) But all is not lost for high-speed rail fans in California. Farmers can load the empty passenger trains up with chickens, cows, pigs, etc., and allow them to roam freely in the train, thus meeting the requirements of Proposition 2. Maybe they can even have porters serve the animals their feed... Farm animals would thus not be confined, and even expand their sight-seeing opportunities, too. The rail lines would be ensured a steady stream of passengers.
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Replying to: grbeck (Nov 07, 2008 8:54 am) |
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