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 ...
Kerry Jackson
August 27, 2024
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
June 7, 2023
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, ...
Pacific Research Institute
May 24, 2023
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
March 14, 2023
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
June 23, 2022
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
February 18, 2022
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
August 31, 2021
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
July 9, 2021
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 ...
Pacific Research Institute
June 18, 2021
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
April 27, 2021
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...