High-Speed Rail

Blog

State Fair High Speed Rail Exhibit Shows Project That May Never Materialize in our Lifetimes

An HSR official told Newsweek that the showcase is “the culmination of years of construction progress, outreach, and community collaboration to make sure these trains and this system mirrors the diversity and vibrancy of the people who’ll ride it.” Too bad this grand “culmination” arrived so late. The project was ...
California

READ THE LATEST ON CA'S BULLET TRAIN

Iowa senator looks to throw the emergency brake on far overbudget spending on out-of-control train projects

California is in dire need of federal funds to keep its high-speed rail dream alive. But a Midwestern senator is standing athwart the “gravy train” yelling stop. Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst recently introduced the Put the Brakes on Boondoggles Act, a to-the-point bill to withhold federal aid from transit construction ...
Book

New PRI Book Release

State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering

NEW PRI BOOK RELEASE PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST Re-Envisioning Our Approach to Transportation Planning Steven Greenhut State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering Focus Should Be Easing Gridlock, Not Prodding People Out of Cars State and local transportation officials are planning transportation projects around social engineering, ...
Blog

Private Sector High Speed Rail Moves Forward While State Bullet Train Cost Estimates Climb

It has been called a dud, the train that couldn’t, a train that went off the rails, a train wreck, the train to nowhere, and a crazy train. The high-speed rail is also a financial fiasco, its cost now almost four times the initial estimate Californians based their votes on ...
Blog

High Speed Rail Update: Cost Projections Go Up Yet Again

Trains played a central role in the development of California. The transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, was key in transforming ​​California, then a state for 19 years, “from a once-isolated place to a major economic and political force, and helped lead to the state’s rapid growth.” In the early 21st ...
Blog

The Train That Doesn’t Track And Never Should

Don’t like the new projected cost of the California high-speed rail? Or miss the reports of the latest estimate? Don’t worry, another one will be along soon. They’re a lot like buses. They just keep on coming. The draft of the California High Speed Rail Authority’s most recent biennial business ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Slow-Built Rail

Download the PDF One of the Legislature’s jobs in the final month of the 2021 session is to make a high-speed rail funding decision. The question is how many more billions will be wasted this year on a project that sensible lawmakers would have abandoned long ago. The Legislature, which ...
Blog

The Bullet Train’s Twin Rails Of Doom

The Golden State’s high-speed rail project, moving slower than a handcar and carrying fewer passengers, seems to be losing the popularity it once enjoyed. On the same day the Legislature passed a budget with no money for the bullet train, we learned that more Californians would prefer to shut it ...
Blog

Been There, Done That on High Speed Rail

Inspired by California’s high-speed rail debacle, the Biden Administration and liberals in Congress have proposed spending tens of billions of dollars to build new high-speed rail networks nationwide. California Has “Been There, Done That” Californians have grown increasingly frustrated with its “train to nowhere,” which is tens of billions of ...
Blog

California On Track To Connect With The Past

It’s widely known that the California bullet train will cost far more than promised, carry fewer passengers at higher fares than predicted, and is more than a decade behind schedule. Add to this another significant flaw that has received little attention: High-speed rail is outdated technology. “High‐​speed trains were rendered ...
Blog

State Fair High Speed Rail Exhibit Shows Project That May Never Materialize in our Lifetimes

An HSR official told Newsweek that the showcase is “the culmination of years of construction progress, outreach, and community collaboration to make sure these trains and this system mirrors the diversity and vibrancy of the people who’ll ride it.” Too bad this grand “culmination” arrived so late. The project was ...
California

READ THE LATEST ON CA'S BULLET TRAIN

Iowa senator looks to throw the emergency brake on far overbudget spending on out-of-control train projects

California is in dire need of federal funds to keep its high-speed rail dream alive. But a Midwestern senator is standing athwart the “gravy train” yelling stop. Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst recently introduced the Put the Brakes on Boondoggles Act, a to-the-point bill to withhold federal aid from transit construction ...
Book

New PRI Book Release

State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering

NEW PRI BOOK RELEASE PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST Re-Envisioning Our Approach to Transportation Planning Steven Greenhut State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering Focus Should Be Easing Gridlock, Not Prodding People Out of Cars State and local transportation officials are planning transportation projects around social engineering, ...
Blog

Private Sector High Speed Rail Moves Forward While State Bullet Train Cost Estimates Climb

It has been called a dud, the train that couldn’t, a train that went off the rails, a train wreck, the train to nowhere, and a crazy train. The high-speed rail is also a financial fiasco, its cost now almost four times the initial estimate Californians based their votes on ...
Blog

High Speed Rail Update: Cost Projections Go Up Yet Again

Trains played a central role in the development of California. The transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, was key in transforming ​​California, then a state for 19 years, “from a once-isolated place to a major economic and political force, and helped lead to the state’s rapid growth.” In the early 21st ...
Blog

The Train That Doesn’t Track And Never Should

Don’t like the new projected cost of the California high-speed rail? Or miss the reports of the latest estimate? Don’t worry, another one will be along soon. They’re a lot like buses. They just keep on coming. The draft of the California High Speed Rail Authority’s most recent biennial business ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Slow-Built Rail

Download the PDF One of the Legislature’s jobs in the final month of the 2021 session is to make a high-speed rail funding decision. The question is how many more billions will be wasted this year on a project that sensible lawmakers would have abandoned long ago. The Legislature, which ...
Blog

The Bullet Train’s Twin Rails Of Doom

The Golden State’s high-speed rail project, moving slower than a handcar and carrying fewer passengers, seems to be losing the popularity it once enjoyed. On the same day the Legislature passed a budget with no money for the bullet train, we learned that more Californians would prefer to shut it ...
Blog

Been There, Done That on High Speed Rail

Inspired by California’s high-speed rail debacle, the Biden Administration and liberals in Congress have proposed spending tens of billions of dollars to build new high-speed rail networks nationwide. California Has “Been There, Done That” Californians have grown increasingly frustrated with its “train to nowhere,” which is tens of billions of ...
Blog

California On Track To Connect With The Past

It’s widely known that the California bullet train will cost far more than promised, carry fewer passengers at higher fares than predicted, and is more than a decade behind schedule. Add to this another significant flaw that has received little attention: High-speed rail is outdated technology. “High‐​speed trains were rendered ...
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