What is it with leftists and trains? With all the problems in the world, with all the problems right here at home, even the wealthiest nation in the world—in world history—doesn’t have money to waste on frivolous ventures. Medicare is scheduled to go broke by 2030, the national debt is already ruinous and continues to skyrocket, roads and bridges aren’t getting necessary repairs and upgrades, and there aren’t nearly enough billionaires to tax to fix it all, as Bill Whittle so brilliantly illustrated. And Democrats keep wanting to build railroads no one will use, and everyone knows will be nothing but equally poorly maintained money pits?
As I recently wrote in Colorado follows California into the railroad money pit, Colorado Democrats are proposing an unknowable-billion-dollar railroad from Ft. Collins to Denver, a distance of only around 60 miles, which promises to be far more costly and slower than the 8-lane I-25. Not because the public is clamoring for it. Not because it will save anyone time and money, but because Democrats have likely discovered that since USAID and other Democrat money-laundering and dispersal scams have been obliterated, they need new ways to spread taxpayer cash around to buy votes.
Graphic: X Post
Fortunately, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has cut off the taxpayer pipeline to California’s high-speed-rail-to-nowhere money pit. If the Colorado “passenger rail” project is ever built, we can only hope a Republican President with the same ideas about fiscal restraint as Donald Trump is in office; otherwise, we’ll waste more tens of billions on projects like Colorado’s, and one now proposed in…wait for it…Texas. Texas?! Texas.
Rail advocates can rejoice: A new study by a consultant called HNTB concluded that a commuter train service between Austin and San Antonio is “viable.” Actually, the used the word “feasible,” but whatever you call it, the study says it can be done.
All it will take, the study says, is a mere $13.5 billion in capital spending on the 80-mile route between the two cities. Oh yes, and $190 million per year on operating costs. Plus there will be interest payments on the capital costs, much of which will probably be financed by selling bonds. At 4 percent, interest on $10 billion in bonds (assuming state and local taxpayers find $3.5 billion in cash for a down payment on the project) is $400 million a year.
Suuuure it will only cost $13.5 billion. Wait a minute: It’s only 80 miles between Austin and SanAntonio? Maybe that will be better and more profitable than the 60-mile route from Ft. Collins to Denver? OK. You caught me; no, it won’t.
Some of that might be covered by fares, but HNTB wasn’t paid to predict fares or riders, so it didn’t. However, it did assume that the train would run eight trips a day each way. Amtrak already has one train a day on which the fares start at $15. Increasing this by eight more trains, assuming 500 seats per train and 50 percent occupancy, would produce revenues of about $22 million per year, and that’s only if that many people really want to ride the train every day of the year. If so, the train would “only” lose around $168 million per year on operations, plus hundreds of millions more on interest.
I’m sure Texans will be delighted to fork over more in taxes to pay around a half-billion more in unnecessary, wasteful government spending. I wouldn’t have been happy about that during the two decades I lived there, but maybe that’s just me.
One of the worst problems with putting trains in areas where there are already adequate highways—I-35 connects the two cities—is passengers still need ground transportation to get to the train station and when they arrive at their destination, which potentially makes driving cheaper than taking a train, particularly when one realizes there is no way to raise train fares enough to make them profitable or even to break even. That’s why taxpayers are going to be soaked in perpetuity to finance trains. In many cases, even direct airline flights will be cheaper.
I suppose the Democrat mania for trains could be a contagion, like Trump Derangement Syndrome. Neither has a known cure or vaccine, and the only treatment, which doesn’t even relieve the symptoms, is more taxpayer cash and far less individual liberty.
Funny how that works.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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