High Speed Rail In Action

New York's dynastic governor, Andy Cuomo, thinks government-run high speed trains are just the ticket to transform Upstate's moribund economy.

"High-speed rail could be the 21st Century Erie Canal for New York State," with bullet trains zipping from New York City to Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal in the future, Cuomo said.

Andy better hope global warming is real.  In the frigid Ukraine, Andy's like-minded colleagues have been embarrassed by repeated breakdowns of costly high speed trains during this winter's record cold  temperatures.

Eight fancy and modern South Korean-made high-speed Hyundai Rotem trains, purchased for $30 million apiece this year, are turning out to be lemons, some passengers say, with frequent breakdowns amid one of the coldest Decembers in many years.

Passengers have complained of frequent stoppages along routes from Kyiv to Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Donetsk. Apart from delays, passengers have also complained that heat on trains has malfunctioned. And travelers who bought Hyundai train tickets for the Kyiv-Lviv route, have been given old Soviet trains instead.

Check out the video, and be sure to watch it to the end.  Our Rusian translator, Ludmilla Idetsneg, tells us the voices you'll hear are Russian railway workers, having a laugh at their commissar's expense.

Horrors of government shutdown

How ever will we survive if the Republicans don't cave as expected, and the federal government is forced to stop providing vital services?  Midwestern observer IowaHawk analyzed the federal budget, and makes some dire predictions, such as...

Roving bands of outlaws stalk our streets, selling incandescent bulbs to vulnerable children.

Mankind's dream of high speed government rail service between Chicago and Iowa City tragically dies.

Sesame Street descends into Mad Maxian anarchy; Oscar the Grouch fashions shivs out the letter J and the number 4.

No longer protected by government warning labels, massive wave of amputations from people sticking limbs into lawn mowers.

Before they shut down the internet, go read the entire list.

Explaining high speed rail

Americans prefer to drive

Here at South of 5 and 20, we've been obsessing over the feds' high speed rail fever since our former Democrat Congressman Mike Arcuri got weak knees over the idea, then was booted out of office by our current rep, Republican Richard Hanna. 

Experts of all persuasions have declared Obama's $53 billion proposal an insane boondoggle, the most recent being newgeography's widely respected Joel Kotkin.  But we suspect all the demographic analysis and cost accounting is irrelevant.  Writing about Kotkin's learned article, Connecticut real estate blogger Christopher Fountain hits the buzzer beater:

The author thoroughly debunks any idea that high speed rail could ever make economic sense, but I think he misses the point when he tries to understand the liberals’ love affair with choo choos. It’s really all about power. Liberals hate, absolutely hate the automobile, because it allows individuals to travel alone, when they choose and where they choose. Trains and other forms of mass transit tell people where they will go, when they will go and by God, they will travel together! It’s the mass in mass transit, and that’s what sends a tingle up liberal’s legs.

Cutting back on family vacations?

Key Largo

Several local restaurants have gone belly up recently, as Finger Lakes families deal with reduced incomes and higher taxes by staying home.  Indeed, we were all scolded by Barry O: 

‘If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation,’ he said.

Apparently cutting  back doesn't apply to our rulers, however.  In in spite of trillion dollar deficits, the O's ares still living high on the taxpayers' hog.  While Americans will never find out about the Obamas' current trip to Vail, our British cousins can read all about it in the Daily Mail:

First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha are said to be on a ‘private family trip’ to Colorado for Presidents' Day Weekend.

They are staying at the upscale Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms start at $650 a night and range up to more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites.

And Joe Biden, head cheerleader for the high speed rail scam, is escaping the snow in the Florida Keys.  No word on whether he took Amtrak:

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife are spending the holiday weekend in the US in Florida’s Key Largo resort town.

The White House said the Bidens arrived in Key Largo on Thursday night and will remain there until Monday night.

Another Cornell professor nixes high speed rail

We recently told you about Cornell professor Rick Geddes, who doesn't think "high speed rail" makes economic sense.  Now another Cornell faculty member has weighed in on the Obama administration's plan to put your grandchildren in debt for your grandfather's technology. 

Nationally prominent blogger Bill Jacobson, who also somehow finds time to teach law at Cornell, has posted performance data on the feds' current passenger rail boondoggle, Amtrak.  A sample, from for Amtrak's most heavily traveled route:

More data at Legal Insurrection.  Jacobson asks:

Before we spend $53 billion on high-speed rail, can we try to get low-speed rail to run on time?

With the Cornell faculty lining up in opposition, we can only hope that Governor Andy Cuomo will realize New York cannot afford to participate in this scam.   And we repeat our call for the Jimmy Olsens at the Ithaca Journal to interview Ithaca's most prominent pundit.

No reflection on the Daily Planet - ed.

Biden to jump Grand Canyon

"Sputnik Moment"

GRAND CANYON, AZ - Standing on the rim of the gaping two-mile wide chasm of the Grand Canyon in a star-spangled jumpsuit, Joe Biden today announced a new $53 billion federal high speed rail program that will include funding for "SkyTrain X-2," a new experimental locomotive that, if successful, will make him the first known U.S. Vice President to jump the Grand Canyon by rail.

With gandy dancer Ray LaHood at his side, Amtrak Joe made the startling announcement.  Iowahawk reports:

According to the project press kit, Biden will be attempting the jump in a train of his own design. After a TSA patdown, Biden will board the 8-car, 150 ton UAW-built train, accelerate to nearly 80 miles per hour up a 1200-foot launch ramp, touchdown on the far side of the canyon, and retreive his baggage from the carousel.

High tech jobs of the future

CU prof negatory on bullet trains

Cornell University transportation expert Rick Geddes has analyzed our rulers' plans for high speed rail.  His conclusion is not surprising:

"My concern is that the proposals currently on the table are for high speed rail between a lot of points where I don't think it makes economic sense," said associate professor Rick Geddes of Cornell University's Department of Policy Analysis and Management.

More than 20 high speed railways are planned, but the professor says routes like the proposed Albany-Buffalo line won't have enough passengers to pick up the bill. Just like those bullet trains careening through Europe and Asia.

"So the governments have to continually lay out funds to support those high speed trains which we like very much, but you're talking about continuing public outlay that I think the United States cannot afford given the fiscal problems that we're facing on state, federal and local levels right now," Geddes said.

Geddes estimates these schemes will cost $50 million per mile.  That's your money, amigos!  Details and video at YNN.

High speed rail "unsustainable"

"Al-ba-ny to Buff-a-lo?"

Advice for Andy Cuomo from the Chinese Academy of Sciences:

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported to the State Council recently, urging the large-scale high-speed railway construction projects in China to be re-evaluated. The CAS worries that China may not be able to afford such a large-scale construction of high-speed rail, and such a large scale high-speed rail network may not be practical.

 If you don't trust the Chinese Academy of Sciences, New York's own Megan McArdle has further analysis.

Will the bullet train connect with the high speed ferry?

RIP 2004 -20007

The New York DOT held a meeting in Rochester this week to push high speed rail.  Rochester's party-line Democrat spendthrift made the usual pitch:

According to Representative Louise Slaughter, the project will create jobs and boost the economy.

"Economically, I think we can only begin to count the blessings we're going to get from this train," Slaughter told reporters during a press conference before the meeting.

It's beyond parody that Louise is pushing high speed rail in Rochester, where taxpayers are still recovering from the multi-million dollar fleecing they took on the high speed ferry scam.

All aboard!

Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo made a pitch Friday to snatch $1.26 billion in high-speed rail money from incoming Republican governors who don't want it.  In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Cuomo said New York would be happy to grab the federal funding that Govs.-elect John Kasich (R-Ohio) and Scott Walker (R-Wis.) campaigned against.

"High-speed rail could be the 21st Century Erie Canal for New York State," with bullet trains zipping from New York City to Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal in the future, Cuomo said.

 Insanity per Daily News.  For previous discussion of this scam, click here.

Hanna ousts Arcuri in 24th

Richard Hanna and supporter

Congratulations to Richard Hanna, winner in the 24th congressional district.  While Richard will not take his seat until January, he's already provided a valuable service to the Finger Lakes and the nation by sending Michael Arcuri to early retirement.

Richard can count an South of 5 and 20 to provide helpful advice during his first Congressional term.  We'll start out with an easy one.  We need to abandon this perennial money pit immediately (to quote from Arcuri's re-election platform):   

Calling it the “Erie Canal of our time” he has been a loud, vocal proponent of high speed rail.

In Monday's Washington Post, columnist Robert J. Samuelson provided a succinct lesson in the absurdity of Arcui's party line porkfest:

Let's suppose that the Obama administration gets its wish to build high-speed rail systems in 13 urban corridors. The administration has already committed $10.5 billion, and that's just a token down payment. California wants about $19 billion for an 800-mile track from Anaheim to San Francisco. Constructing all 13 corridors could easily approach $200 billion. Most (or all) of that would have to come from government at some level. What would we get for this huge investment?

Not much. Here's what we wouldn't get: any meaningful reduction in traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, air travel, oil consumption or imports. Nada, zip. If you can do fourth-grade math, you can understand why.

Read Samuleson's Post column here.