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Brightline's high-speed LA-to-Las Vegas rail project scores $3 billion in federal funding
(www.statesman.com)
Thank Fook no more hyperloop projects were funded.
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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First of all, woot, trains.
But this is a smaller section of high speed rail. One Vegas wanted and offered to pay for if memory serves. For a $4.2B project, $3.25B in tax exempt bonds were already authorized. Now another $3B? Looot of money flowing towards this project to get people to casinos. Hope accounting is up to par.
California does have another high speed rail that republicans have fought every step of the way. There is progress, but slow. Could probably toss some of that over budget excess our way to help out. Just say'n.
The budget excess earmarked for someone’s not-so-subtle rainy day fund?
The same funding package gave the Bakersfield to Merced high speed project $3.1 billion so they could buy trains and start running by 2030. The San Francisco to Los Angeles project was originally supposed to cost $9 billion but it's now estimated between $90 and $120 billion.
Brightline looks like a bargain compared to CHSR.
The Bakersfield to Merced* project, and the Central Valley portion is now estimated at $30bil; if you're going to rag on it get your facts right.
Love giving public money to private infrastructure.
Mixed ownership of rail isn't uncommon in the world, but yeah its a bit shit.
As a counter point, Brightline is basically the only private company to stand up a successful US commuter rail line in decades, so it makes sense to give them a boost here.
Somebody needs to build that fucking train, and they built one like it in rail hostile florida. That one is diesel because "reasons" but this one will be a sane electric.
There was a plan for actual HSR in Florida using the same ROW as Brightline. It was torpedoed by former governor and current senator Rick Scott. They sent money back to the Obama administration both because they didn't want the Democrats to get a win and also because of their privatization/kickback fetish.
Same exact thing happened in Ohio in 2010, Kasich sent the money back.
Also in Wisconsin
And destroying the desert landscape in the process. Let's add hundreds of miles of high speed rail on top of I-15, the miles of freight rail, old mines, new lithium mining, all the military bases, and all the solar and wind farms to the delicate biosphere that hasn't changed in a million years. Awesome.
Anyway, this country needs proper intercity and urban rail like yesterday.
I feel like with 3B they should at least be able to electrify the existing tracks between Rancho Cucamonga and LA Union, and have Brightline stop there. Would make the whole thing so much nicer.
Probably more important to get the project completed first. It's not a perfect project by any means, but it's still pretty good overall.