NYCRRson wrote:Regarding how it’s USA money so you aren’t paying for it, I feel sorry for someone this naive.
Respectfully Kevin, I’m not being naïve. You had no way of knowing this, but I did moderate (and co-admin) a political message board for 4 years. Thus I do have a pretty good idea of how the funding works. Yes, it is collected from taxes. The important thing to remember is this: Congress has already passed the bill and the funding has been allocated to the Transportation Dept for HSR. It does not magically go back into general funding if it is unspent! Nor can the Transportation Dept just take the funds for use elsewhere. (I believe that would be called graft and subject to prosecution.) With that in mind, there are unspent HSR funds and my boy Cuomo is doing the correct thing by asking for them, IMO.
Your talking points also fall short in a couple other ways, as well. Let’s start with the demand for ridership. Your frame of reference seems to be the 1970s. Sorry, it’s not 1976 any more! I moved to Hammondsport (NY) that year. It was a great environment to learn about the wine and tourist industries. Back in those days, there were a relatively small number of wineries in New York State. Thanks to some initiatives passed by NYS back in the early ‘80s, the upstate NY wine industry is booming and tourism is growing right along with it. HSR will be a valuable tool in bringing tourists from NYC to the Finger Lakes.
How so? Yes, a flight from JFK to Rochester is about an hour itself but I have flown the corridor so I can tell you that there is a 1-2 hour lead time for arriving at the airport. By contrast, I can show up at the Amtrak station just minutes before the train arrives. There is less hassle with taking the train, too. (Read: pat downs.) If HSR can sufficiently reduce the time for transit between NYC and upstate NY, it would be a very attractive option for tourists. I think a 4 hour train trip would compete quite well against airlines, especially if the price for an Amtrak ticket is lower than that of an airline. A station in Lyons would also help a lot, as it is closer to the Finger Lakes than either Rochester or Syracuse. A similar business model could be used for trips to Niagara Falls and other places.
You can call it a boondoggle but I see HSR as a worthy investment. Amtrak, too, is a worthy investment. It’s struggled throughout its 40 year lifespan because most Presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and both Bushes) and Congress cared very little about it. Expecting Amtrak to be competitive with its miniscule budget is like asking a kid who works at the drive through window at McDonalds to buy a Ferrari. Those who argue for increasing investment in Amtrak are correct. It does indeed take seed money to grow more money later.
As for your talking points about VAT and other extraneous subjects, they are not relevant to this conversation and I won’t respond to them. You’d probably find that sort of conversation more enjoyable on a political message board, IMO.
P.S. The Turbo Trains were a bust because they were high maintenance gas guzzlers. What information do you have. Kevin, that HSR would be hgih maintenance or using too much fuel?
***edited for spelling***