HB 26-09: Expansion of High Speed Rail and Mass Transit Act (Tabled)

[OBD]

Amendment is hostile

Very hostile. Madison County has less than 100k population. There is no need for HSR in Jackson, TN. We need to build an efficient transportation grid, not a pork barrel boondoggle.

Mr. Speaker,

I think the people of Jackson, TN take offense by the gentleman of California's arbitrary determination about which towns deserve high speed rail and which don't.

Rural areas need transportation too. A station in Jackson, TN would also serve the surrounding rural areas, helping to cut down on traffic and provide a cheaper way to travel to larger cities and across the country.

In 2011, the Jackson-Humboldt Combined Statistical Area showed a population of over 165,000 citizens.

While that may not be the millions that the gentleman of California expects, rural areas don't have sprawling international airports nor do they receive air service by airlines to a variety of destinations like larger cities.

High speed rail would bring more travel options to rural areas. The rail is going to end up going near Jackson, TN anyways. Why not build a station there?

I yield.

Butting in as a citizen, if no one minds .-.

I, personally, have no quarrel with adding rural stops to planned lines (in fact, I tried to do the same thing in my first-ever Fremont bill on transportation, and I would appreciate an amendment adding additional stops on the Western line, particularly Eugene and perhaps Medford). However, the issue here is that the cost of HSR for the line proposed by Rep. Jessica is too high for the resulting gain in consumer utility. HSR, cost-wise, is only competitive with airlines over short-distances, so air travel likely makes the Jessica line redundant and a bad investment, especially with the COVID-19 deficit to account for. The western portion of the line is particularly egregious - building a line across 500 miles (greater than the distance from Boston to Washington, D.C!) of barren Texan desert when the same distance can be easily bridged by cheaper air travel is an exceptionally irresponsible use of funds.

[OBD]

At the risk of stating the obvious, if y'all are going to build a line across 500 miles of Texan desert, shouldn't you at least extend it 3/5 that distance to Los Angeles? If you're gonna go pork-barrel spending, might as well go all the way.

[OBD]

Butting in as a citizen again if no one minds.

Okay, so before I say this, a couple things to make clear. I currently oppose the bill as written due to the current budget crunch, but I'm open to future HSR expansion if it's done smartly. Right now, I have severe doubts about the Southern leg of this bill, which passes through areas that aren't densely populated enough to economically support the immense cost of HSR construction (giving off pork barrel vibes). But these doubts are accentuated by the fact that some routes far more logical than these have not yet been proposed!

Take Chicago to New York, for instance. This corridor is very populous, links two economic powerhouses, and also has multiple large cities on it. I don't think I exaggerate when I say this corridor is the second-most trafficked in America, behind only the NE I-95 metropolitan area. A Milwaukee - Chicago - South Bend - Detroit - Dayton - Cleveland - Pittsburg - Philly - New York line makes logical sense, but we're building lines in rural Texas and from Chicago to St. Louis instead? What? And why hasn't it been pointed out yet that Dallas - one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country - is not included in this plan?

As I said above, HSR expansion is not necessarily a bad thing, but it needs to be done better and with more basic logic (and when we're actually able to run a surplus). We should start with logical corridors - like the coastal lines and the Texas triangle - before risking billions in construction investment in areas where few, if any people may actually use the services. I firmly believe that HSR is a key part of the future of Atlasian infrastructure, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution for every transportation woe. Sorry for the rant but I think it had to be said.

EDIT: Not to mention Atlanta. Again, WHAT?

[OBD]

https://talkelections.org/AFEWIKI/index.php?title=LincolnRail_Act_2017

Somehow nobody bothered to do any research at all on this bill. Lincoln already has a HSR system funded just like Fremont. In which case the question is why should the federal government bother paying for a HSR system for the one region who hasn't paid for it themselves.

Yeah. Multiple HSR bills were also passed in Fremont - it would be great if the GM or the Comptroller could make a verdict as to the status of HSR in Fremont and Lincoln due to questionable levels of funding adequacy.