Two pieces on high-speed rail struck us today as especially illustrative of how nonsensical this technology is, and how expensive it will be to implement.
From Randal O’Toole’s Antiplanner site (that’s to be credited for the graphic), he discusses Why High-Speed Trains Are a Ridiculous Fantasy.
From Jon Fleischman’s FlashReport, Kevin Dayton writes on how the CHSRA has managed to keep quiet about the PROJECT LABOR AGREEMENTS they’ll execute to ensure any work on the Browndoggle goes to union labor: California High-Speed Rail Authority Keeps Union Deal Out of Public Forums. Dayton writes how the topic of PLAs were left out of the CHSRA Board Meeting Agenda to ensure the taxpaying public was uninformed and unable to respond:
Any interested member of the public diligently scrutinizing board agendas and attending meetings of the Board of Directors would never know that all construction companies working on the first segment of the high-speed rail line from Madera through Fresno will be required to sign a Project Labor Agreement (disguised under the term “Community Benefits Agreement”) with unions in the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. Nor would that person ever know that the California High-Speed Rail Authority needs to get permission from the Federal Railroad Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation to require its contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement for this federally-funded project.
Proposition 1A did not specify that PLAs were required, but then those who voted for 1A were to believe by lying Democrats they’d be buying a non-stop 240mph LA<>SF train, and not Amtrak II.
There’s plenty more here: http://californiahighspeedrailscam.com/.
Lucy Dunn is for that high speed rail thing. She posted about it on fb. That just seems ridiculous to me. That thing is gonna be sucking money for the rest of our lives.
Lucy Dunn’s for a lot of stupid things.