High Speed Fail - Granite Grok

High Speed Fail

Credit: FreakinNews.comNew Hampshire has received a grant of 2.2 million dollars from Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood to study a high speed rail corridor up to Concord.  Lahood, referred to by Geroge Will as the ‘Secretary of Behavior Modification" hates cars–an interesting choice for the head of the Department of Transportation.  He is also the guy who wants to ban cell phones from cars, hands free, hand held integrated, you name it.

"Left wing loon" would be a polite description of Mr. La Hood and his Grant for New Hampshire just makes him look loonier.

The 2.2 million is part of 2.4 billion in stimulus dollars allotted in support of the progressive desire to control how you get from A to B.  Local fans of commuter rail will applaud the grant, but its being paid for with monopoly money.  It is a waste of as yet collected tax payer dollars on an idea that will never pay for itself if implemented, so the 2.2 million is simply a federal intrusion designed to sell us on the a project that is not even cost effective for New Hampshire.

It’s a boondoggle that will cost us more than it is worth. Even advocates claim that train fares will only cover half the yearly operating costs, low balled at 5 to 8 million annually but closer to 10 million.  (My past analysis of that here) Half of that cost–one that will never go down by the way–would come out of the state transportation budget–as in your pocket, even if you live nowhere near the rail corridor.  (Here’s a past post on that).  And I have provided something of a pro-libertarian, every-day-Joe  cost benefit analysis here.

(Make sure you check out those links)

So this is all a bad idea. High speed rail is a transportation trophy wife for liberals and a boondoggle that will create a perpetual money pit for the rest of us..  And no amount of pre-printed treasury money to examine it’s impact will solve the long range problem of the real impact–who will have to pay to keep this shiny high-speed turd running. 

This grant is nothing more than an incentive to cram down generational theft just so a few progressives can point at the tax sucking whore they’ve foisted on us and go.."High speed rail..we have that too."

Send the money back to the feds with a note that reads–"please use to pay down New Hampshire’s share of the national debt you’ll be taxing out of us any day now."

 





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