China’s High-Speed Rail Disaster Is Not A Model For The U.S.

by Marc Scribner on October 17, 2012 · 0 comments

After taking office in 2009, President Obama aggressively marketed high-speed rail in the United States. (I noted at the time that most of what the administration called “high-speed rail” was in fact expensive slight upgrades to existing, money-losing passenger rail service.) After several states rejected rail funding and with California’s planned L.A.-San Francisco corridor facing majority opposition, lawsuits, ballooning costs, and generally dismal prospects, the Obama administration has largely downplayed its previous rail boosterism.  In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama made high-speed rail a priority of his administration:………

 But in his 2012 State of the Union speech, high-speed rail was not mentioned once. Only gaffe-prone Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is still occasionally claiming the U.S. needs China-style choo-choos cross-crossing the country, recently telling a reporter, “The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million” and that “[w]e owe it to the next generation to leave them something. We shortchange the next generation if we don’t leave them high-speed rail. That’s our obligation.”  To Read More….

My Take – LaHood is insane!  RK