Here come the trains

When I was working, I traveled to Newark, NJ virtually every day for nearly forty-eight years.  Several years ago, someone came up with the brilliant idea of adding a new light rail train from one station to another in Newark, the idea being that people in the western suburbs would take the train all the way to Newark airport (changing trains three times in the process).  On my way to work the train passed in front of me while I sat at a light, this happened nearly every day and I was struck by one thing day after day; there was not one person riding this train yet day after day it sped along on its merry way as happy as Thomas.  Even years later hardly a person rides this multi-million dollar endeavor, especially any time after the early morning rush hour.  One projection was for 7,000 riders per day by 2010 and another on the NJ Transit site said the number was to be 3,500.  I could not find the actual number, but even with the 3,500 estimate it would take about 87 years to recoup the initial cost never mind the ongoing maintenance costs. It was, in fact, a good, impractical idea.

Don’t get me wrong, I like trains; I think trains are a good idea, especially high-speed trains, but the key is not the government throwing money into large projects here and there, but rather is there a demand for new high-speed trains?  Will Americans give up their cars to drive from Orlando to Tampa or Miami to Tampa?  Take all the hassle of flying and transfer that to short trips around the US, is that the American way?  Then of course, we have the age old NIMBY.

President Obama’s administration is awarding $810 million to establish a high-speed passenger rail line between Madison and Milwaukee, though it will likely take years to establish the Madison to Milwaukee line and bring it up to 110 mph service. Additional hurdles could also still need to be cleared, such as approval by the Legislature’s budget committee. Scott Harmsen/Kalamazoo Gazette

TAMPA, FL — President Obama spoke to a roaring crowd of supporters at the University of Tampa Thursday.  He said the Florida High Speed Rail Project is the future of United States  transportation.

“There is no reason other countries can build high speed rail lines and we can’t,” Obama said. “That’s what’s going to happen in Tampa.”

As part of Obama’s new federal spending bill, Florida is  getting 1.3 billion dollars to build the first phase of the rail as early as next year.  The second phase could begin as soon as 2013 and reach all the way to Miami. 

At 120 miles an hour, hourly departures will speed travelers from Miami to Orlando in 90 minutes for about 50 dollars a ticket.

There is no reason other countries can provide universal health insurance and we can’t either, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  We keep forgetting that “other countries” are not the United States.  Fifty dollars a ticket, we are years and years away from the first person stepping onto this train and yet someone alredy knows what the ticket will cost (with or without subsidy)?

This new push for high-speed rail all sounds just grand, too grand, more Washington speak during a tough economy, and we have heard it all before.  Grand ideas should never be dismissed out of hand and neither should the idea of high-speed rail.  However, rather than being caught up in the rhetoric, the environment, the politics and the promise of jobs (someday in the future), we should be looking at the details, the real and ongoing cost, the practical problems and the demand for this grand idea.  Grabbing headlines may be fine for politicians, but when our attention moves on to something else, we are left with the mess and the costs to deal with. 

By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2009

TAMPA – Amtrak lost money on 41 of its 45 train lines in 2008, including a $145.23 per passenger loss on the Silver Star that serves Tampa on its New York-Miami run, a Pew Charitable Trusts research group reported Tuesday.

System-wide losses ranged from about $5 to $462 per passenger. The average loss per passenger was about $32, four times the $8 per passenger Amtrak computed using different methods, according to the study by Subsidyscope, which reports on how federal subsidies are used.

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