Quote:
Originally Posted by bnk
I don't know if we will ever really see true HSR in the US outside of a few places on each coast. This 220 thing will be talked about as long as nuclear fusion has been with the same results IMO.
EDIT
BTW I did not mean to thumbs down this post I must have clicked it and it cannot be removed by an edit. So take no offence to it, thanks in advance.
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We'll see HSR or its replacement eventually, but first Florida, Texas, and Illinois will have to grow as large as California in population and tax revenues, which is barely funding its HSR. California has been lucky there was a bad recession and some stimulus funds to help fund its HSR. Otherwise, I'm not so sure it's $9 Billion in bonds would have built much.
Just to put some of this into prospective, the largest corporations in the world are valued at... 4th Quarter 2010.....
1. Exxon Mobil $368,711.5 Million
2. PetroChina $303,273.6 Million
3. Apple Inc. $295,886.3 Million
4. BHP Billiton $243,540.3 Million
5. Microsoft $238,784.5 Million
6. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China $233,369.1 Million
7. Petrobras $229,066.6 Million
8. China Construction Bank $222,245.1 Million
9. Royal Dutch Shell $208,593.7 Million
10. Nestlé $203,534.3 Million
There's $Billion$ of private capital out there. If the marketing models were positive, some private entity surely would fund HSR. TGV has offered to help fund 50% of many potential HSR lines - it's just than no one has been willing to fund the other 50%....
California needs to get it's PPP (PrivatePublicPartnership) deal done. Chip their $9 Billion of bonds onto the Feds Stimulus $4 Billion, that's nearly $15 Billion. Get TGV or the Japanese to pitch in another $15 Billion, that's around $30 Billion. That should fund the CHSR line to San Jose (last Caltrain station) and Los Angeles (last Metrolinx station). Finish the line the rest of the way later when the projected profits start coming in.
None of the great Railroad corporations was completed all at once. All were built city by city, merger by merger, over decades and centuries. Even the Interstate Highways were built county by county, state by state, over decades. Maybe our expectations for a 250-300 miles HSR line to be funded and completed all at once is too much?