A Lost Cause: The High-Speed Rail Race

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(1) Editorial: A Lost Cause: The High-Speed Rail Race. Washington Post, Feb 16, 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/16/AR2011021605977.html

Quote:

"in Japan * * * only a single bullet-train line, between Japan and Osaka, breaks even; in France * * * only the Paris-Lyon line is in the black.

"When it comes to high-speed rail, Europe, Japan and Taiwan have two natural advantages over every region of the United States, with the possible exception of the Northeast Corridor - high gas taxes and high population density. If high-speed rail turned into a money pit under relatively favorable circumstances, imagine the subsidies it would require here.



Note:
(a) "China's new fast trains are too expensive for ordinary workers to ride" in the editorial offers a link to

Lara Farrar, All aboard for China's fast-track future?  CNN, Jan 28, 2011.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/27/china.new.year.transport/index.html

Quote:

"The country's annual spend on transport infrastructure, including roads and railways, now exceeds 1.1 trillion yuan ($165 billion), the China Daily reported.

"'The high-speed rail makes no sense to Chinese people,' said Zhao Jian, a professor at Jiaotong University in Beijing who researches rail economics. 'Why? Because it is too expensive. The construction cost is too high. The operation cost is too high. I don't think Chinese people can afford the price. At present, the high-speed rail is a big loss.'  Zhao said the money spent to build one kilometer of high-speed rail could build three kilometers of traditional rail. He also said in some areas in the country, traditional railways have been closed, forcing passengers to take the more expensive trains.

(b) The editorial cites

Paul Amos, Dick Bullock and Jitendra Sondhi, High-Speed Rail: The Fast Track to Economic Development? World Bank, July 2010 (55856).
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/07/26/000334955_20100726032714/Rendered/PDF/558560WP0Box341SR1v08121jul101final.pdf


(2) Florida governor Rick Scott on Feb 16 turned down $2.4b slated by the Obama administration to build high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando. He thus "joins [fellow Republican governors] John Kasich of Ohio and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker in rejecting U.S. funds from $8 billion in high-speed rail grants created by Obama’s 2009 stimulus legislation. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie, also a Republican, last year refused $3 billion of U.S. government money for a commuter-rail tunnel under the Hudson River,"  
Jerry Hart and Lisa Caruso, Florida's Scott Joins Three Republican Governors Rejecting U.S. Rail Funds. Bloomberg, Feb 16, 2011.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-16/florida-s-scott-joins-three-republican-governors-rejecting-u-s-rail-funds.html

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