Yard Goat Images
Celebrating Historic Rail Preservation DVDs with less talk…more steam!
Is (Super) High Speed Rail Doomed? by Yard Goat Images 3-Volume DVD set:
Steamin’ Summer
• Rock Island Train Festival
Features:
Rock Island Train Festival 765 Travels Home
The QJs Return to Newton, Iowa Steam at Monticello
• QJ & NKP 765 ferry moves • Little River RR 110 Birthday • Silver Creek & Stephenson RR • And More!!!
1st DVD $24.95, 2nd DVD on same order $19.95, or all 3 for $59.95! (plus shipping)
www.yardgoatimages.com Or call 612-623-0167
Send SASE for free brochure/order form 112 3rd AV NE, Minneapolis MN 55413
New Jersey Memories by Bob Pennisi ......$19.95 Diamondbugs by Jack Grasso . . . .14.95 Operation CUT by Grasso . . . . . 18.95 Dutch Country Trolleys... Kramer . . .15.95 26 Miles To Jersey City... Komelski . . . . 8.95 The Morristown & Erie Railway Bob Pennisi . . .8.95 Lehigh Valley Passenger Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00 RR Stations Of New England - V-1 B&M . . . . . . .4.00 The Hard Coal Carriers Vol. 1 First Generation Geeps... Bernet . . . . . . . .19.95 Vol. 2 Camelback Twilight ... Bernet . . . . . . . . . 19.95 “A Colorful Look at:” series (all color) The Erie Lackawanna by Rich Pennisi . . . . . . . . 24.95 The Chicago & North Western by G. Bernet . . . .19.95 Conrail’s SD40 & SD40-2 by G. Bernet . . . . . . . 19.95 Selected Pennsylvania Shortlimes by Bernet. . . 19.95 The Anthracite Series: (all color) Anthracite Country Color... G. Bernet . . . . . . . .19.95 Colorful Memories of Reading’s Shamokin Div 19.95 Memories of Eastern Pennsylvania Railroading 24.95 New York City series: Unifying The Subways .... Kramer . . . . . . . . . . . 17.95 Third Avenue Railway...“A Cityscape” Kramer .18.95 Brooklyn & Queens Transit... Kramer . . . . . . . .19.95 Bells & Whistles Titles Anything But Steam ... Kramer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.00 Fairmount Park Transit ... Kramer . . . . . . . . . . . .6.95 Birney Car Panorama ... Kramer. . . . . . . . . . . . . .8.95 Send $1.00 for a complete catalog of Railroadiana, used books & magazines, timetables, and postcards.
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16 MARCH 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
Quality Railbooks Since 1976 Erie Railroad ....
ON SEVERAL FRONTS, the California high-speed rail program is in trouble, as is the whole U.S. HSR movement. 1) A California panel kicked off 2012 by recommending that the state legislature not authorize the sale of $2.7 billion in bond funds for the initial construction of the west coast HSR. Ironic it is that this California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group was created by the same voter-approved ballot initiative that set the project in motion. The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has planned to use the money to match the $3.5 billion in federal construction money it has received for the construction. The Los Angeles Times says the panel members still support the concept of high- speed rail but concluded it would be wise to suspend the work to “re-evaluate the overall goals, routes, financing and phasing.” Forg- ing ahead to build the initial Central Valley segment later this year — without assur- ance of additional federal support — is not a sound business practice, as the review com- mission sees it. Panel Chairman Will Kemp- ton said moving forward under such uncer- tainty “represents an immense financial risk on the part of the state of California.” CHSRA officials, for their part, criticized
the report for misunderstanding “how high speed rail systems have been constructed throughout the world,” that its assumptions about private sector investment in such sys- tems were “unrealistic” and “unsubstantiat- ed,” and that the review finding ignores or misconstrues legal requirements for pro- ceeding with HSR in California. At our deadline, the California HSR the
broader HSR effort had also taken a pound- ing on Capitol Hill.
Buyers’ Remorse? 2) High-speed rail supporters and critics spent four hours in what can only be called a classic American “bullet train” debate, in- cluding its costs, where to prioritize it, and whether taxpayers should get their money back where its efforts fail or falter. Fresh- man Congressman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) confronted Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood with a new poll showing that Califor- nia voters had buyers’ remorse over their 2008 approval of a $9 billion dollar ballot initiative to jumpstart the state’s plans for a high speed rail system between San Fran- cisco and Los Angeles, ultimately with other spurs to San Diego, Sacramento, and Irvine. Now 59 per cent of the voters in the state, in- cluding 37 per cent of those who voted yes in ’08 want a do-over. Rep. Corrine Brown said at the hearing
that Florida taxpayers should get the money back that they invested in an HSR plan that was scrapped earlier this year, much to her chagrin. Brown (D-Fla.) says that for 30 years her state has been pouring money in- to the state’s HSR plans only to see it yanked out from under them by the Sun- shine State’s new governor Rick Scott who rejected federal money for it.
HSR Still Coming, Says Fed DOT Notwithstanding the setbacks, Transporta- tion Secretary Ray LaHood rejected the claim of committee Chairman John Mica that some HSR projects were so ill-conceived as to supply intellectual ammunition for critics. “High speed rail is coming,” the DOT boss said with an air of inevitability. Con- gressman Mica cited the California project which has more than doubled its original projected cost and whose timeline had been stretched all the way to 2033. The Florida Republican said some plans
touted as “high-speed” are nothing of the sort. As one of several examples, he cited Chica- go-St. Louis, scheduled at a higher top speed of 110 m.p.h., but whose average speed is pegged at the more modest speed of 71 m.p.h. The committee chairman sounded a note
that permeated much of the discussion that followed: that taxpayer dollars should be spent where high-speed rail is most likely to succeed — the Northeast Corridor. The rea- sons? Highest density of population where the government owns the tracks (as opposed to virtually every other part of the system where Amtrak passenger trains run on property owned by the freight railroads whose priorities do not always jibe with pas- senger requirements). “It’s just not fair,” retorted the secretary,
who bristled at the idea of favoring one region of the country over the others. He cited the total of $10 billion in requests from 24 states for the $2 billion rejected by Florida. (Ulti- mately a big share of that went to California.) “Anybody wanting to turn back money,
my state will take it,” blurted out Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.). “That’s okay if it’s for the Northeast corri- dor,” responded Chairman Mica. “There is no Republican or Democratic railroad,” declared Secretary LaHood, the only Republican in the Obama cabinet. Describing the Obama plan to serve 80 per
cent of Americans with access to HSR as “unre- alistic,” committee member Bill Shuster (who also heads the committee’s railroads subcom- mittee) added, “We just don’t have the money.” Unlike Presidents Lincoln (the transcon-
tinental railroad) and Eisenhower (the In- terstate Highway), there is no crying need for HSR in many communities outside the NEC, he argued. “Why not focus on the re- gion with 18 to 19 per cent of the nation’s population, and where we [the feds] own the tracks [with no freight interference]?” he asked. Concurring with LaHood’s critique of the
fairness involved in that thinking, Con- gressman Nick Rahall (
D-W.Va.) Ranking Member of the panel opined that such a mammoth infrastructure effort should be a ‘national project.”
Panelists Weigh In Near the end of the hearing three outside panelists testified with generally favorable, but with some caveats, comments as to HSR plans. Kenneth Orski, publisher of Innova- tion NewsBriefs told the lawmakers that
Features:
Little River Railroad #110/ Celebrating 100 Years
Tank Engines to Rock Island by Yard Goat Images
New!
by Yard Goat Images Features:
QJs to Rock Island NKP 765 to Rock Island Silver Creek & Stephenson Rock Island Train Festival
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