Napa wine train called "wasteful spending" by senators

[Kamen Rider]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/28/kaye.w ... tml?hpt=C1

Napa Valley, California (CNN) -- It is the quintessential Napa Valley experience.

Passengers aboard sleek antique rail cars pay more than $100 for a four-course meal, not including the wine. A recent lunch aboard the train included steak, lobster cakes and local greens.

During their three-hour journey winding through Napa Valley, passengers can choose from more than 100 wines to complement their meal.

The Napa Valley Wine Train has been shuttling passengers through one of the country's most famous valleys for more than two decades, but now it's under fire because of Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain. They ranked the wine train as No. 11 on their list of the 100 most "wasteful" and "silly" stimulus projects, leading some to call it the Stimulus Waste Express.

[Milwaukee_F40C]

Here is I think the relevant information:

The stimulus money is really being used for a massive flood-control project for the valley. The train's tracks happen to be in the way, so they have to be moved. It is a simple fix, but it's not cheap.

To make it happen, $54 million is being used to build a flood wall at the wine train depot, elevate the tracks and move them 33 feet, and raise four bridges.

Since the government is actually building something that interferes with existing private property, they better cover the costs of any harm that is done, such as relocating the tracks in this case. However, I'm not sure that the government should be subsidizing projects that encourage people to live in flood prone areas.

Fox River Trolley Museum is dealing with something like this right now. A highway bridge is being constructed crossing the museum right of way and adjacent river. The bridge ended up being built higher than originally planned to accommodate clearance for a certain track, which the highway people were hoping to acquire. The county or state also had to pay for temporary grade crossings that can withstand construction traffic crossing our line, which included installing heavier rail.

[GSC]

The title of this thread is just the thing to get the public to think that the stimulus money is subsidizing the train's operation...which it isn't. Here in NJ, such a project would kick in the much-hated eminent-domain monster and just take the railroad away. At least the plans preserve the wine train's physical plant.

[mxdata]

What this picture needs is Nancy Pelosi and her friends spending enormous amounts of taxpayer money on food and booze as they study "global warming". I wonder if they could do that as effectively on a train as they do on an airplane. Spend money, that is.....

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123472#

MX

[tj48]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/28/kaye.w ... tml?hpt=C1

Napa Valley, California (CNN) -- It is the quintessential Napa Valley experience.

Passengers aboard sleek antique rail cars pay more than $100 for a four-course meal, not including the wine. A recent lunch aboard the train included steak, lobster cakes and local greens.

During their three-hour journey winding through Napa Valley, passengers can choose from more than 100 wines to complement their meal.

The Napa Valley Wine Train has been shuttling passengers through one of the country's most famous valleys for more than two decades, but now it's under fire because of Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain. They ranked the wine train as No. 11 on their list of the 100 most "wasteful" and "silly" stimulus projects, leading some to call it the Stimulus Waste Express.

Can't help but wonder how many "pork barrel" appropriations Mr. McCain and Mr. Coburn have landed in their careers. Politicians, more and more I can't stand any of them.



'

[GSC]

On a plane, or on a train,
Pelosi can spend it just the same.
She spends our money on green eggs and ham,
Hope you like it, Sam-I-Am.

What this picture needs is Nancy Pelosi and her friends spending enormous amounts of taxpayer money on food and booze as they study "global warming". I wonder if they could do that as effectively on a train as they do on an airplane. Spend money, that is.....

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123472#

MX

[2behind1]

Wasn't Tom Coburn trying to kill all funding to rail museums this summer that finally rallied the ARM people with a telephone capaign against it? Seems obvious his toy trains were taken away at an early age.

John McCain has been anti-Amtrak and anti steel wheel on rails for as long as he has been in the Senate. Guess he is being mavericky now that there may be a Republican primary for his Senate seat this year.

[Alcophile]

John McCain must have had bad parents...
he seems to have never gotten his Lionel .

Think he'll cut funding for PBS for every episode a PBS station shows of Thomas the Tank Engine?

[3rdrail]

What this picture needs is Nancy Pelosi and her friends spending enormous amounts of taxpayer money on food and booze as they study "global warming". I wonder if they could do that as effectively on a train as they do on an airplane. Spend money, that is.....

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123472#

MX

Miss plastic face herself and pals would be stuffing their faces with caviar, filet mignon, and $600 Cristal champagne on the Wine Train, all the while feeling comfy-cozy that they were "roughing it" by living the common-man style of riding the train as opposed to their private jets. (Her nose is starting to look like Michael Jackson's.) I guess that it's like Teddy Kennedy's former habit of gallantly offering taxi service to young girls on Chappaquidick Island out of the kindness of his heart.

[Kamen Rider]

Starting to? I've questioned If that nose was even made out of skin since 2006.

[andre]

Starting to? I've questioned If that nose was even made out of skin since 2006.

he got it surplus from MJ

[daylight4449]

seems like mccain needs his facts straight on where the money is going.