Can We Afford Not to High Speed Rail?

It’s easy to look past the easier route that Brightline has taken to build out their intercity passenger rail lines. In Florida, they took an existing route, the FEC, and are building in the desert between Las Vegas and Southern California to much fanfare.

There are probably some lessons there for running passenger rail and as Ken Prendergast recently told us on the podcast, Brightline will be using it’s connections and potential shortcuts to woo states away from the existing Amtrak model where state’s sponsor service by funding it.

But picking lower hanging fruit is harder in places like Texas and California where an existing route and an empty desert weren’t available. There are arguments that California could have skipped the major central valley cities and run down I-5 but then you miss almost 4 million in population and for me personally a ride to my sister’s place in Bakersfield.

Texas is finding as California did that land acquisition is hard. The private company working on the Houston to Fort Worth through Dallas line has only been able to get 25% of the land it needs to collect to build it. Texas Republicans also hope to pass a law that would slow the line down. If that sounds familiar, remember California Republicans in the House who actually stand to gain from California High Speed Rail have done everything they could to undermine the project and are now angling to kill it altogether if they can.

But they seem to like the idea of it overall as long as it’s not done by California liberals.  I think they can’t look down on something that so many people love around the world even if they wish they could. A certain electric car salesman turned hatchet man recently said that he envies China’s high speed rail system while complaining about Amtrak, not understanding that they are both publicly funded. One lavishly, and the other on the whim of waffling appropriators.

One thing however that continues to bother me is a question Michael Kimmelman brought up in his New York Times article on Brightline. “But can they make money?” My first response is sure, if they are given all the subsidies and benefits cars are in this country then they could turn a profit. But no one is asking the Interstate Highway System to make money though we keep adding to it.

For once I wish someone would ask instead, can we afford not to do it?