The High Speed Rail Act (Awaiting Presidential Signature/Veto)

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Section 4b is horrible. Also, I question how much of a need there is for a rail connecting St. Louis & Toronto.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'd prefer to see this built through a Public-Private Partnership, than through increasing taxation.

     Fair point, though given the lack of money to be made versus the costs of railroad technology, how would a company be properly reimbursed for its cooperation? I was just thinking about this myself.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'd prefer to see this built through a Public-Private Partnership, than through increasing taxation.

     Fair point, though given the lack of money to be made versus the costs of railroad technology, how would a company be properly reimbursed for its cooperation? I was just thinking about this myself.

A cut of the profits from ticket sales?

     I was thinking that, though I was also thinking it would probably have to be a much larger cut than the company's share of input, seeing as how this will probably be losing money for as long as it exists.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Atlasian petrol taxes must be about $80 by now.

     Yep. Sales tax is incredibly overabused by politicians.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It seems like a significant improvement. I should say that after 12 years maybe the railways could be sold to a neutral third-party so it doesn't create a monopoly.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Glad to hear the positive comments about the modified version.

Would anybody like to propose any amendments to what is now written? I'm certainly open to quite a bit, as I would definitely like to get this bill through.

I'd like 2 changes:

Minneapolis, MN- St. Louis, MO- Chicago, IL- Milwaukee, WI- Minneapolis, MN

and

San Diego, CA- Los Angeles, CA- San Fransicso, CA- Portland, OR- Seattle, WA

     Hopefully that unfortunate misspelling does not make it into the final version of the bill.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Section 1: The Federal government will construct railroad tracks designed for high speed electrically operated trains running up to 250 km/h (156 mph) between the following cities:

St. Louis, MO - Chicago, IL
Washington, DC - Philadelphia, PA - New York, NY - Boston, MA
San Fransisco, CA - Los Angeles, CA
Dallas, TX - Houston, TX

Section 2: After the above mentioned construction is complete, private operating companies will be allowed to purchase and operate high speed trains on these routes, after acquiring permission and a contract from the government. The government will encourage as much competition as possible, and will be responsible for certifying that safety measures are appropriately taken by all operating companies.

Section 3: The federal government will collect 15% of all profits made on these routes and the collected money will be used primarily for track maintenance. Any money left over may be used for other government purposes. This arrangement will last at least 12 years, at which time all government-owned lines will become available for sale to private corporations. Any private corporation may purchase government-owned tracks provided that it can be reasonably determined that it has nothing to gain or lose from the success or failure of any of the train-operating companies, and that it shall not unreasonably favor one or more companies in charging its prices, under penalty of $5,000,000 in fines.

     The bolded text is what I changed from Franzl's amendment.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Aye