A month after Jeff Sessions and Paul Ryan voiced their concerns with the XpressWest proposal, Harry Reid has admitted that XpressWest is having trouble raising enough money to secure the proposed Federally backed loan of 5.5 billion dollars.
XpressWest is hoping to use the loan to finance a high speed train track across the desert from California to the Las Vegas Strip. The idea of high speed train depositing passengers at the doorstep of the Vegas Casinos is a tantalizing prospect, but is it really worth our government spending so much of our money? Having ridden on a high speed train in the UK, I can tell you that it is a very fun experience, however fun does not justify funding unpractical ventures.
One of the biggest problems with the proposed track is where it begins. One would assume that it would originate out of Los Angeles, however, the current proposal puts the Californian station in a town called Victorville along the I-15 corridor, nearly ninety miles from the center of downtown LA. The idea is that Las Vegas bound Californians will drive close to two hours towards Vegas, stop and get on a train that will take the rest of the way, to save about an hour of driving time. XpressWest argues that the track will reduce most of the congestion on I-15, however a recent study pointed out that the majority of the time spent in traffic between LA and Las Vegas happens between LA and Victorville. The claim of solving congestion on the section of road that experiences the least amount of time wasted is not worth $5.5 billion.
Being a person who lives in Las Vegas and travels to Los Angeles occasionally, this track would provide zero benefit to my travel plans… what am I suppose to do once I reach Victorville without my car?
Despite the many problems with the XpressWest proposal, it enjoys the support of the entire National delegation from Nevada, both Senators and all of our Congressmen have been enlisted to push for the Federal D.O.T. to approve the loan. I fear that our politicians have taken the easier path of supporting what is seemingly popular instead of what is reasonable.
Our Congressional representatives are eager to parrot the glowing data released by XpressWest in regards to jobs created and passenger expectations. A huge portion of the jobs that are to be created are temporary and no studies have been conducted to measure what jobs will be lost if the track is built. How will the casinos and other business on the border of our two states fare if the tourists now can skip past them. How about the dozens of flights that operate daily between the two cities? If flights are canceled, jobs will be cut back. XpressWest will not add any increase in tourism to Las Vegas, only adding to the methods of how they get there. In modern times, passenger rail lines have only been feasible between major cities that have well functioning internal public transportation systems, such as the American east coast, Japan and parts of Europe.
The United States has and always should strive to push forward the edge of innovation, doing away with old technology and improving life with the new. But that innovation must come along organically and not be forced upon the economy. Doing so will force employees out of currently self sustaining jobs and into positions that must be financed by the Government and the taxpayers, and, as Europe has proven, that is a recipe for failure. A careful study of American history shows that our railroads have always been a shaky industry. From their invention to the time they were surpassed by automobiles as the favored mode of transportation, railroads have been plagued by endless financial scandals shaking the public trust and wasting our money. Just because this new train can go faster does not mean that the dynamics of railroads have changed. They require huge amounts of money to build (about $21 million per mile of track) and must stay in business on the slimmest of profit margins. XpressWest is claiming it expects to carry 5 million passengers during its first year of operation, charging them $89 for a round trip ticket. That would result in less than $450 million in gross revenue per year.
If the track is built, it will surely have to rely on government support to allow it to compete with the Airlines… not to mention the highway that runs along the same route. Using the averages for MPG and gas prices it would cost less to drive your car round trip in I-15 than it would be to buy a single ticket from XpressWest.
The original railroads of this country only asked the government for the right to buy the land across the vast wilderness of North America. At the end of the era of the railroads they looked to the government to solve all of their problems XpressWest is looking to pick up where its forerunners left off and get the taxpayers to fund their poorly conceived project.
If this money must be spent, it should be spent on improving our existing roads and modes of transportation.
Spending our money on flashy, economically unfeasible projects is not an effective use of our money.
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