Republican Florida Already Missed the Boat on Rail Money: A Boon for California?

[Ocklawaha]

Faye is nothing if she's not consistent, her attacks on the Republican's and Mica in particular have shown up in exactly 1,146 posts which range from stem-cell research, to Red Fish, to flying trains. Go ahead and make that call to JSO because they might be the only force that can stop her!

OCKLAWAHA

[FayeforCure]

Yay for Progressive California!

Sanchez Urges Feds to Ship Surplus Rail Funds to California

Posted: Thursday, November 18, 2010 8:15 pm | Updated: 9:51 am, Fri Nov 19, 2010.

0 comments

Rep. Loretta Sanchez on Thursday joined Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein in urging the federal government to send California's high-speed rail system any money that other states reject for construction of their own train projects.

The proposed system, to run from Anaheim to San Francisco at a cost of $43 billion, has been plagued by financial accountability and ethics issues.

But in a letter that also was signed by four other California members of Congress, Sanchez told Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo that California is "ready and eager to implement a high-speed rail system."

http://voiceofoc.org/blogs/article_e569d0c2-f393-11df-95b4-001cc4c002e0.html

[BridgeTroll]

Clearly the best place to send federal money...

The proposed system, to run from Anaheim to San Francisco at a cost of $43 billion, has been plagued by financial accountability and ethics issues.

[FayeforCure]

Clearly the best place to send federal money...

The proposed system, to run from Anaheim to San Francisco at a cost of $43 billion, has been plagued by financial accountability and ethics issues.

I wonder how Florida is doing on those financial accountability and ethics issues. Hmmmmm, Florida just elected a new leader, governor elect Rick Scott, a master at creating financial eccountability and ethics issues!!!

[Doctor_K]

And yet somehow that's everyone else's fault but your own?

[Ocklawaha]

The California plan actually goes where people live which makes it far superior to anything Florida has come up with yet.

The Florida plan wouldn't work if we got the entire $8 Billion and Rick Scott was the biggest rail supporter in the country. Any high speed train, here, France, Japan, China, ANYWHERE, that can be shorthauled by a 67' VW Microbus on Alligator Alley is going to fail. Florida has ignored where people LIVE-WORK-PLAY and the traditional surface travel patterns in favor of a railroad designed like a hub and spokes airline. 

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

The California plan actually goes where people live which makes it far superior to anything Florida has come up with yet.

really...have you looked at some of the proposed routes?

for example, the people in Palo Alto have been clear that they want the train to go around, not through, their city.

[CS Foltz]

tufsu..........your splitting hairs! Rat Rail does nothing but feed Ratville! They can afford to fund their own operation if they truely wished to do so.......right? What about the rest of Florida............Jacksonville has rail, major rail spines, in three different directions and we don't do squat with it! HSR as proposed does nothing for the rest of the state or tieing the whole of Flordia in a system that all could use. I know I am flogging a dead mule but I had to say this! Screw Miami, what about our world?

[tufsu1]

CS....you're being a bit ridiculous...the first leg of HSR in Flroida connects Tampa to the Orlando airport...with intermediate stops in Lakeland, at Disney, and the I-Drive/Convention Center area....at a cost of about $2.5 Billion

Given that we rely on sales tax and corporate tax for statewide funding, it is entirely reasonable for Disney to get a stop.

Furthermore, additional legs to Miami and Jacksonville are planned.

On the other hand, California's HSR plan will cost close to $50 Billion....so yes, it should connect more cities!

[Ocklawaha]

Every station on the California line from Sacramento to Los Angeles, was on the route in 1879... In fact the renderings show the HSR right alongside the BNSF and Union Pacific trains.

California does NOT plan on building new San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento or several other stations, on the railroad and using the railroad stations already in place with some improvements. These new tracks are to lay right alongside the freight railroad tracks for nearly the entire distance.

...AND your talking about one station at Palo Alto that wants to stay out of the system? WE SHOULD BE SO LUCKY and have cities willing to stand down.  

Florida's HSR takes 50 minutes to cover from Orlando to Tampa and conventional rail COULD do the same thing in 80 minutes. The Miami trip from the traditional rail route to the new 180 mph plan? 15 minutes difference with a conventional train moving at 75 mph. The conventional train route via Tampa-Bartow-West Lake Wales-West Palm Beach-Miami is 258 miles and our new super train? Tampa-Orlando-Miami is 324 miles of very bad planning.

Really TU... DUMB PLAN, that misses the intermediate population, and won't serve the Metro Orlando citizens unless they take it alongside CSX through to Sanford... and they apparently are not smart enough for that. We're landing our flying train at the airport.

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

Furthermore, additional legs to Miami and Jacksonville are planned.

On the other hand, California's HSR plan will cost close to $50 Billion....so yes, it should connect more cities!

More defending the indefensible? California is as long as the Eastern United States so yeah, it SHOULD cost more, it's bigger, has more people, more cities, and already has a railroad fabric among it's citizens...we don't.

Also a bit disingenious wouldn't you say TU? You and I both know there is NO PLAN to connect Jacksonville to Orlando-OR-Tampa-OR-Miami in the manner they are proposing for those glitz and glitter cities. We're to get a slightly faster Amtrak train and their calling that a Jacksonville HSR connection. None of us will be alive to see this stupid system reach JACKSONVILLE as it will fail in the first phase, and probably collapse somewhere in the tree cutting stage of phase two.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

not true Ock...the HSR ballot question from 2000 required connecting the 5 largest metro areas....Florida decided that could be handled at first by connecting Tampa Bay, Orlando, West Palm, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami....however, since then the state's plan has been updated to include an HSR connection from Orlando to Jacksonville....that is step 3 in the plan

[yapp1850]

ock so you have never seen train b on csx track  ave speed will be  60m,  90 min tampa to orlando,  tampa to miami  4 hrs  because of freight traffic, too many curves  and  csx will not allow any trains under 50ft from there tracks more than  90mp

[yapp1850]

true high speed raill    tampa to miami stop all station  3.15,  expreess train   1.5-2.0  hrs

[Ocklawaha]

ock so you have never seen train b on csx track  ave speed will be  60m,  90 min tampa to orlando,  tampa to miami  4 hrs  because of freight traffic, too many curves  and  csx will not allow any trains under 50ft from there tracks more than  90mp

Don't need to yapp, Ock is a railroad planner and I'm telling y'all there is no way in hell this thing is going to hit anywhere near the ridership, sprawl stopping, or end to end speeds that they claim. When I could take a 1950's steam engine over an upgraded existing route from Tampa to Miami at 70mph and come into Miami 15 minutes off the 186 mph flash then there is SOMETHING wrong with their route planning.

OCKLAWAHA