For the non rail-obsessed reader: There was a meeting this week at the White House, hosted by Joe Biden, at which the governors who care a whit about rail came together to jockey for a share of $8 billion in stimulus loot.
Noteably absent: Anyone from Nevada. Which was odd, because that state wants a high speed rail link between greater LA and Las Vegas. And it’s not as if the proposal doesn’t need some aggressive lobbying and PR. One GOP senator memorably dubbed it a “fancy gambling train.” Aspersions were also cast because someone suggested a station in Anaheim and since Anaheim = Disneyland, the idea was clearly frivolous. There’s even been a little talk that it should be one of those floating, futuristic trains that they’ve been running for decades in Japan–and, again, anything that involves levitating is self-evidently wacky and wasteful.
So, then, why wasn’t a Nevadan there with representatives from other states to defend and advance the plan? They didn’t know the meeting was happening, ’cause the invitation got lost in the email or something.
Says the local paper: “The governor’s deputy chief of staff, Mendy Elliott, said Thursday the office never saw an invitation from the vice president.” Added Elliott: “Unfortunately, we weren’t aware of the meeting.”
One backer of the HSR scheme described it as “too bad” that nobody from Nevada was present, but everyone was quick to say that it wouldn’t hurt the state’s chances of getting federal funds.
That’s questionable though, because California isn’t going to be fighting for it — their overriding goal is getting the line built between LA and SF, and it doesn’t make much sense to be pushing competing proposals. Besides, how serious can a plan be if you don’t even know about the meeting where you’re supposed to be selling it?
There’s also the question of how you just *miss* an email from Joe Biden. Isn’t that illegal or something?
June 5th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Wait, I thought this was an earmark in the stimulus bill. You mean Eric Cantor was lying to me?
June 8th, 2009 at 11:56 am
it wasn’t earmarked… it was just a talking point for the republicans because they found the most extreme proposal and ran with it.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
bah humbug. the Las Vegas maglev project needs to die, so other, more cost-effective and more conventional high-speed rail projects — such as the L.A. to San Francisco route — can live.
and, BTW, Japan may have maglev, but it’s nothing more than a test train. the country still relies on its Shinkansen technology.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
James,
I would tend to agree — running a train from Victorville seems like a sketchy idea anyway. I mean… Victorville?
-Jebediah
June 8th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I’ve been promoting gambling and dining cars for all trains for a long time, and that includes commuter trains. Nobody ever thinks about seduction. No, not that kind. I mean seducing people to become passengers on trains. If flying is faster, it’s also no fun. Riding trains is slower (don’t give me that high-speed rail being faster nonsense!) but could be much more entertaining.
By the way, I also don’t want to force people out of their cars. I want to seduce them with more convenient, more affordable, and more efficient public mass transit. But, that’s another discussion.
Give gambling to the state Indian casinos as concessions with taxation to subsidize the train’s operation. Between the adult Disneyland in Nevada to the kiddy one in California; that’s a no-brainer. But, it could be done on all the other trains in the US as well. AMTRAK, wake up and get your business heads operating. Make that old cliche, “Getting There is Half the Fun,” profitable.
September 7th, 2009 at 2:47 am
I think Nevada’s request should be justified.I don’t believe there is a need of high speed rail between those two places.