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 $8 billion approved for rail systems that people won't use...
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| Author | Topic: $8 billion approved for rail systems that people won't use... |
bjprowler      POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Clarksville,Ohio,USA |
posted 01-29-2010 05:08 AM
    
Obama's back in "campaign mode" again after the wake up call in Massachusetts letting him know that he'll be looking for a new job and re-locating again in 2012....With checkbook under arm, he's off spreading the "good news" about nationalize rail systems (No, private enterprise will not be involved...it will be "government owned") He's visting states that will receive part of the $8 BILLION dollars to build passenger rail systems in various states. Ohio is one of those states......We're getting $400 million of taxpayers "borrowed from China" START UP money to built a rail system which will traverse our state from border to border traveling from Cincinnati to Dayton to Columbus and then to Cleveland. In addition to the Fed's $400 million, Ohio taxpayers will have to cough up yet another $160 million (we're broke you know, but what the heck).....Additionally, the rail system is projected to LOSE up to $50 million PER YEAR once it's completed... The Ohio train is said to travel at the lightning speed of 79 miles per hour and a trip from Cincinnati to Columbus will go something like this... Get up extra early cause you'll need to arrive at the train station approximately 30 minutes prior to departure in order to go through screening and board the train... Departure times will be set but delays are part of traveling on public transportation and so be prepared to be late occasionally... A limited number of trains will be using the rail and so you can't pick and choose when you'll be departing or returning and so you may have to catch the train hours before or after when you would like to.... Assuming the train does leave on schedule, the trip from Cincinnati to Columbus will make at least one stop in Dayton and your expected travel time will be FOUR HOURS to make a trip that you could have driven by car (all interstate highway travel) in TWO HOURS while using 4-5 gallons of gas. Once you arrive in Columbus, you'll need a cab, bus or rented car to get around town in unless someone is there to pick you up. Bus or cab fares, tips and meals are not included in the train fare of course......Should your business in Columbus only take a couple of hours and you're ready to return to Cincinnati you'll have to wait for the next scheduled departure and again the travel time will take 4 hours... Naturally, the train will be extremely comfortable. It will be re-decorated frequently by local graffti artists and many of your traveling companions will be the same folks that used to travel by Greyhound bus and sleep behind dumpsters.... Upon returning to Cincinnati, you will need to retrieve your car from the all day parking lot ($8 please) and resume your journey home. Well, I don't know about you, but a government run train sounds like it will be a huge success....ALL ABOARD!!!
This message has been edited by bjprowler on 01-29-2010 at 07:15 AM |
ALLEY CAT               POA Lifetime Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:mesa, az, USA |
posted 01-29-2010 07:20 AM
quote: Phoenix spent over a $1 billion for its 20 mile light rail system. Complete waste of money > lack of riders,,,,accidents with cars (built in the center of major streets),,,,,'honor system' of paying the fare to ride |
MDProwler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Fallston,MD USA |
posted 01-29-2010 02:29 PM
quote: So I guess you would rather have another 1/2 million cars on the road? |
Wayne Finch POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie Personal ScrapBook From:Toronto, Canada |
posted 01-29-2010 03:04 PM
I am all for high speed trains - but how about a real high speed system not a bunch of hodge podge voter friendly lines to nowhere that are not even high speed. A major high speed line along I-95 in the east and one along the west coast would get the most use by far (although no use to me). Connecting NY, Philly, Baltimore, Washington, Charlotte and Florida seems reasonable and would have lots of traffic. Tampa - Orlando line ??? I am not sure about that one (or most of the others). It's only an hour+ drive and most Florida retirees are not looking to commute. |
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MDProwler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Fallston,MD USA |
posted 01-29-2010 03:09 PM
quote: The northeast corridor is extremely busy with commuter train traffic and high speed may be in the future but the infrastructure is very old with bridges in some areas over 100 years old. |
ed monahan POA Lifetime Site Supporter Prowler Junkie Personal ScrapBook From:Cincinnati, Oh, USA |
posted 01-29-2010 03:17 PM
Cincinnati to Columbus and on to Cleveland might work but not at a top speed of 79 with stops. That isn't high speed. That is just over the current speed limits in the middle of the state. You wouldn't save any time at all and if there were 2 or 3 of you going you couldn't possibly save $. If it went 150-180 it might be worth it. |
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bjprowler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Clarksville,Ohio,USA |
posted 01-29-2010 03:34 PM
quote: HOLY CRAP!! You're saying that 500,000 cars WON'T be using the interstate highway between Cincinnati and Columbus???? Well, slap me and call me purdy!!!...I would have never have guessed it!...Thanks for clearing that up......but.... ...."FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND CARS".......(now you're SURE about that????) This message has been edited by bjprowler on 01-29-2010 at 04:14 PM |
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Wayne Finch POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie Personal ScrapBook From:Toronto, Canada |
posted 01-29-2010 04:53 PM
High speed lines are only useful generally for very large metropolitans areas to other very large metropolitan areas than are many hours apart. In most cities, the housing is around the perimeter, so going downtown to catch a train is a commute on its own (and half the people will be driving in the opposite direction to their final destination). It would take longer and be way less efficient for most to take the train (especially at 79 mph), never mind having to conform to a schedule. You new trains at 250mph cutting a 5 hour drive down to an hour and change. That gets America moving!!! |
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MDProwler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Fallston,MD USA |
posted 01-29-2010 06:39 PM
quote: Well the last time I came through Columbus I didn't count but I would bet (judging by the 4 lanes of slow backed up traffic)that there was many more then the 1,000 you state. With over 20,000,000 vehicles registered in Ohio one would wonder where they all are. Of course since it's all corn fields and pastures maybe they are John Deers and Horse and Buggy's in which case the 79mph train would save considerable time. |
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bjprowler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Clarksville,Ohio,USA |
posted 01-29-2010 07:15 PM
quote: I guess you would know better than me since you once drove through Columbus...I've only lived here for 58 years and driven from Cincy to Columbus hundreds of times...Non stop, I might add, because there are no cities between Cincinnati and Columbus...just corn fields and pastures as I stated (check your atlas)...And $560,000,000.00 ($560 MILLION) really isn't that much money to transport people 102 miles I guess....I bet my great grand children will have that paid off in 30 or 40 years.... BTW...Yes, we Buckeyes love our John Deere tractors, horses, buggies and being free to make a living without government interference. Unfortunately, a majority of Ohioans voted for "change" during the last couple of years but we're smart enough to know when we screwed up and we'll make it right the next time we get a chance to vote....You can take that, and our coveted 20 electoral votes to the bank...but it won't be the Obama Bank.... This message has been edited by bjprowler on 01-29-2010 at 08:10 PM |
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ed monahan POA Lifetime Site Supporter Prowler Junkie Personal ScrapBook From:Cincinnati, Oh, USA |
posted 01-29-2010 08:37 PM
Actually there is probably a lot of East-West traffic on I-70 but there really isn't a lot of traffic on I-71. Now I-75 carries really a lot of traffic from Canada all the way to Fla. That is a more direct north-south route. |
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MDProwler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Fallston,MD USA |
posted 01-29-2010 10:37 PM
quote: I guess you didn't get the gist of my posts. I could give a rats ass about a train in Ohio. I just love having fun with you guys that are never happy about anything. |
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bjprowler POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Clarksville,Ohio,USA |
posted 01-30-2010 07:16 AM
Here's the projections from the US Department of Commerce: "The $400 million stimulus investment in the 3C “Quick Start” is expected to result in at least 255 immediate construction jobs over a two year period. According to job-creation formulas by the U.S. Department of Commerce, this investment in Ohio will generate at least 8,000 spin-off jobs and could add at least $1.2 billion to Ohio’s economy". 255 new construction jobs over a two year period? $400,000,000.00 for 255 jobs??? Oh yeah, the study also projected that the FIVE trains proposed will carry approximately 1,309 people per day (478,000 per year)....and the state of Ohio will have to subsidize it's operating cost (i.e. LOSS) of approximately $17 million annually... If a private entrepreneur took this same proposal to a lender to get a loan he'd be laughed out of the bank.. This message has been edited by bjprowler on 01-30-2010 at 07:20 AM |
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ed monahan POA Lifetime Site Supporter Prowler Junkie Personal ScrapBook From:Cincinnati, Oh, USA |
posted 01-30-2010 09:33 AM
Gary, in Cincinnati the taxpayers footed the bill for three major projects right on the Ohio River. The Great American Ball Park, Paul Brown Stadium and the Underground Railroad Freedom Center. ALL 3 were going to save the city or the region. All three were going to create jobs. NONE of them are even close to breaking even and they are trying to figure out right now how to pay for them. P B Stadium is at least 10 years old and so is the Underground Museum and the baseball park is about 5 years old. Taxes will definitely go up to pay for these three boondoggles and all three were going to create utopia before they were built. You have to know the area, your market to figure out what will work. Our local politicians surely don't know and I don't need the Feds coming in to tell me what I need. It isn't going to work, plain and simple. The letters to the editor are ALL against it. No one will use it and we will be saddled with the debt for years. |
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RPL POA Lifetime Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Rochester Hills, MI, USA |
posted 02-01-2010 04:14 PM
Actually, I have a better idea. Let's use tax dollars like Alabama and build a factory to produce hybrid vehicles and out sell GM.......or NOT! "That huge auto plant in Alabama? Actually, it's a visa factory Promoters share a little secret that they rarely tell the rest of us: People often prefer grandiose plans to sensible, easy-to-achieve ones -- particularly if good-paying jobs are promised. That seems to be the case with Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corp.'s pie-in-the-sky plan to assemble cars in Alabama. The company says that in 2018, it will be producing 3 million hybrids per year in the United States. But last year General Motors Co. was the top-selling automaker in the United States, with sales of 2.1 million units. So HK Motors will exceed GM's current sales in just eight years? Absurd. But wait, there's more. CEO Chuantao Wang says, with a straight face, that he is benchmarking the quality of Mercedes-Benz. Let's see: HK Motors, a startup based in Pasadena, Calif., has designed and assembled exactly zero cars in its brief history. And yet it plans to match the superbly trained engineers at the proudest name in the business? Again, absurd. So what is HK Motors seeking with its grand assertions and a press conference with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley two weeks ago? Actually, the answer is easy: green cards for rich Chinese. The company acknowledges that it is using a special U.S. visa program called EB-5. Each $500,000 invested in an economically distressed area generates a permanent-resident green card for a foreign family. And where is HK Motors raising its cash? China, of course, home to thousands of newly minted millionaires. For them, $500,000 is an acceptable price to move to the United States. And they will care little how their money is spent or if only a handful of cars are ever built. "Our investment in Alabama creates the potential" for 15,723 EB-5 visas, thus allowing the company to raise as much as $7.86 billion, says Charles Huang, vice chairman of HK Motors. So I guess HK Motors is being entirely straightforward about its plans. Unfortunately, those plans have little to do with making cars. |
,,,,operating at a loss in dollars. Runs on electricity from overhead power line. Nothing like riding the rail with the homeless,,,vomit, feces, trash, on the floors,,while you read graffiti....
....MD, you must know something that no one else in Ohio knows!!!....During the week you can probably drive from Cincinnati to Columbus and never see more than 1,000 cars in total (both lanes)...This is OHIO...It's mostly corn fields and pastures along the way..We don't have bumper to bumper congestion....
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