CNN: Say, high-speed rail is an expensive bust, huh?

Ohio considered “higher speed rail” prior to Kasich winning. It would have connected Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati. Luckily Kasich said no go. Had it passed the state the state would have subsidized half the cost of each ticket for years to come. Boondoggles.

Somebody is getting rich off this crap.

CW on March 26, 2013 at 7:38 PM

Oh, that story here in OH has more convolutions than a John le Carre’ spy novel. Or a timber rattler with a case of the heaves, FTM.

The “3C” line was originally proposed as “light rail”. Then it became “HSR” when that replaced “LR” as the popular buzzword. What it would have been was a passenger-only line that ran hourly, meaning at least six “consists” on the move at all times.

The planning was, to put it charitably, childish. Columbus mayor Michael Coleman was determined to have a streetcar system to “grace ouah streets” (his pronunciation, verbatim) and demanded that the LR/HSR system be hooked to it. No, there was no way to explain to the bozoid that a streetcar and a freakin’ high-speed train are two entirely different breeds of animal.

Then, the state ws going to “expropriate” the Baltimore & Ohio right-of-way, and track, under “eminent domain”, to avoid paying B&O road fees. This ended up in court. The state lost.

At that point, someone pointed out that the maximum safe speed on the B&O trackage was not the 100 MPH+ the HSR visionaries dreamed of, but closer to 45 MPH, which is about as fast as any engineer who isn’t a damn fool wants to go through OH anyway. (Crossings, switching yards, etc.)

No problem, say the state. To make our train look like high-speed, we’ll just restrict all other trains in the state to under 30 MPH!

Oops again. There’s a Federal law against states pulling that trick. It goes back to the days when states would put speed restrictions on rail lines unless they paid special “road taxes”, which were little more than protection money. Which they would not charge to certain “politically favored” lines. DOT should have stepped on this, but it was actually Common Cause that blew the whistle, forcing the courts to warn the state off.

Next gambit; build an entirely new line parallel to the B&O roadbed. This was when it really started moving. That is, a bunch of would-be high rollers (like several well-connected unions) bought land either side of the B&O track for peanuts, anticipating re-selling it to the state at a big markup. (And giving big state Democrats “contributions” by way of saying “thank you”.)

While this was going on, the state was also having legally-required studies done to determine economic viability. They all said; it’ll never pay for itself. The response? Hire another firm to do another study. Ohio went through twelve cycles of this in three years.

The Dems’ dream, basically, was to have a “private line” at taxpayers’ expense to squire big donors back and forth from Columbus to Cincy and Cleveland for Reds and Bengals games. Wine ‘em, dine ‘em, and hit ‘em up for the big bucks.

Along comes Kasich, who says, “this is crazy, and every study says so”, and cancels the whole shebang.

LaHood & Co. explode. Basically on the principle of “our friends have already bought the land to sell to you at an inflated price, our union friends want their workers on the job on your nickel, now shut up and do as you’re told!”

Kasich said, “See ya in court”.

That’s pretty much where it stands today. The Democrat-run combine is still determined to build this “Big Dig on Steroids” boondoggle; Kasich is still saying “make me”.

Look for it to resurface, like a vampire, if a Democrat wins the next gubernatorial election in OH.

clear ether

eon

eon on March 26, 2013 at 9:39 PM