Republican Governors in OH, WI, NJ, FL Scammed the Nation Out of High Speed Rail

[FayeforCure]

Remember the exciting announcements about a nationwide high-speed rail network that Obama made in 2010? And remember how several Tea Party governors killed high-speed rail in their states? Well, if it wasn’t painfully obvious before, Angie Schmitt of Streetsblog recently wrote a great post on the lies these Tea Party governors of FL, OH, NJ, and WI used, and the actual facts. Here’s that post reposted in full:


Image Credit: Miami Herald/Politifact

Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida â€" the Republican governors in each of these states recently aborted a major rail project claiming it was too expensive. Their methods were remarkably similar; their justifications aligned. In many ways, it was like they were all working from the same playbook.

Now that the Government Accountability Office has exposed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s distortions (a.k.a. lies) to justify killing the ARC rail tunnel project to Manhattan, it makes you wonder if similar investigations in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida would reveal the same.

Today James Rowen, who writes The Political Environment blog out of Milwaukee, reminded readers that he was pointing out the distortions put forward by Wisconsin Governor Scott “No Train” Walker more than a year ago. In August 2010, Scott Walker, then a candidate for governor, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the train would cost Wisconsin $8 million annually to operate.

Meanwhile the newspaper reported the actual cost to the state would be less than one-tenth of his claim:


Operating costs are projected at $7.5 million a year, not counting the part covered by fares. But [WisDot official Carl Anne] Renlund said the state is already using federal funds to cover 90% of the Hiawatha’s $5.2 million annual operating cost â€" leaving $520,000 a year for state taxpayers to pick up â€" and hopes to do the same with the new line. That would mean state taxpayers would be paying $750,000 a year for the service to Madison.

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich also relied on half-truths or worst-case scenarios in his campaign to kill Ohio’s 3C Rail project. Kasich repeated over and over that the train would be too slow to attract passengers, traveling at an average speed of 39 miles per hour. “The 39 mph high-speed train is dead when I become governor,” he told Ohio reporters.

Kasich did not change his tune when the plan was altered to raise the average speed to 50 miles per hour, as reported by Martin Gottlieb of the Dayton Daily News in October 2010:


Average speeds will be higher in the middle of the route: 61 mph between Columbus and the suburbs of Cleveland. All told, the Cincinnati-Cleveland run will be 90-minutes shorter than originally projected. The average approaches car speeds, figuring traffic delays and stops.

That prompted Gottlieb to assert that “Kasich’s pitch on trains [was] not really about speed” but about “philosophy.”

Meanwhile, it was more of the same over in Florida, where Governor Rick Scott said that HSR would have cost state taxpayers $1 billion to build. Scott told a Tampa television station: “They offered, the federal government, here’s the deal… I’m going to give you $2.4 billion â€" that sounds nice right? You’ve got to put up a billion dollars to finish the project. And you are going to lose money every year. And if you decide, gosh I’m tired of losing that money, you’ve got to give the $2.4 billion back. It’s a bad deal.”

Politifact rated Scott’s claim an unequivocal “false,” reporting that the feds actually expected Florida to pick up $280 million in construction costs:


So why did the state say the rail line would cost the state $280 million to construct but Scott said $1 billion? The answer is because Scott’s source of information isn’t state transportation officials. It’s the libertarian Reason Foundation.

On Jan. 6, 2011, the Reason Foundation released an analysis about Florida’s rail project, which concluded that capital costs to build the project would be higher than anticipated and ridership would fall short, leaving the state with operational shortfalls. Scott relied on the Reason analysis in killing the high-speed rail project.

Polifact went on to question the study’s “methodology and objectiveness.” It was written by pseudo-libertarian Wendell Cox, who has made his career railing against transit and urbanism.

Relying on the Cox “study” â€" which was really more of a survey of transportation projects all over the world, not limited to HSR â€" Rick Scott predicted the project would come in $1.2 billion over budget and assumed the majority of those costs would be borne by the state, which Politifact said “likely wasn’t true.”

Sound familiar? Earlier this week, Governor Chris Christie was called out by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office for using similarly deceptive rhetoric when he killed New Jersey’s ARC tunnel. Christie claimed that the state would pick up 70 percent of the project costs. The GAO pegged the real figure at 14.4 percent. And Christie also justified changing his mind about the project by saying overruns would bring the total cost to $14 billion. But as the New York Times reported earlier this week:


…the range of estimates had in fact remained unchanged in the two years before he announced in 2010 that he was shutting down the project. And state transportation officials, the report says, had said the cost would be no more than $10 billion.

Source: Planetsave (http://s.tt/19nWE)

http://planetsave.com/2012/04/17/oh-wi-nj-fl-governors-lied-to-public-to-kill-high-speed-trains/

[Garden guy]

Lies from a republican..wow..what a suprise!  NOT

[brainstormer]

What's even more unbelievable is that less than two years later the Wisconsin DOT has laid out its plans to make I39 six lanes instead of four from Madison to the Illinois border.  Total cost - $715 million dollars.  Its being touted as a job creator and economic boost to the interstate corridor.  I wonder who donated thousands to Walker's campaign?  Perhaps some road builders?

Even if high speed rail would have cost the state of WI $7.5 million a year, they could have funded it for almost 100 years for the same amount of money it is going to take to turn a four lane interstate into six lanes.

Tea party folks are uneducated and most of us know the real reason they didn't want high speed rail.  I'm sure if our President had proposed expanding the interstate they would be protesting like crazy calling it a waste of taxpayer money.  It's all about who has the idea.  Doesn't matter anymore whether it makes sense. 

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/state-details-plans-for-expanding-interstate/article_d4fc3c94-84c3-11e1-8c8d-0019bb2963f4.html

[JeffreyS]

You are absolutely right Brainstormer if President Obama proposed Americans should continue to breath oxygen the the Tea Party would hold it's breath.

[thelakelander]

Don't worry.  We're going to spend +$2 billion on I-4 soon.  It just won't be rail:

$2 billion overhaul of I-4 could start in 2014

After years of talk and planning and seemingly little else, a major overhaul of Interstate 4 could be just two years away.

State officials said Wednesday that they are close to figuring out how to pay for a $2 billion makeover of the region's most heavily traveled road from Longwood through downtown Orlando to Kirkman Road in south Orange County.

Work could begin as soon as mid-2014 if private financiers are found to build, maintain and operate four new toll lanes that would be constructed in the middle of the highway. The investors would get their money back from motorists paying fees that would be highest during peak travel times.

Exactly how much private money would be necessary was not clear during a Wednesday presentation by a state Department of Transportation manager to MetroPlan Orlando. The agency sets transportation policy in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.

But FDOT's Loreen Bobo did say the state has set aside $857 million for the renovation. Some money also would have to come from the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority to improve the I-4 interchange with State Road 408 heading west, a spot that often causes major backups.

That work is expected to cost about $625 million. Expressway officials say they have not talked yet with the state about their role for I-4.

The key to the plan's success is the tolls, which FDOT officials say will have to play a prominent role in most future major road improvements. The reason is gas-tax revenues â€" the major source of road funds â€" are dwindling and there is no political will to increase them.

full article: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-04-11/business/os-interstate-4-construction-20120411_1_tolls-road-funds-state-road

[tufsu1]

and FDOT is also looking to add toll lanes on I-4 from just east of downtown Tampa to Lakeland....I wonder how much 30 miles of additional expressway lanes will cost to build?

[JeffreyS]

Hopefully I 4 is getting rail via "All Aboard Florida" from the IFEC.  We can have it too if we just use our train station as a train station. IMO.

[FayeforCure]

Yet it seems Republican voters tolerate the lies...........they do not condemn the repeated lies............and they repeatedly vote for liars.

Is it Stockholm syndrome?

Our country being held hostage by repeat offenders doesn't seem to be a problem to them.

Even among the Public Transportation advocates on this forum...........how many voted for Rick Scott who already had a history of scamming Medicare?

Once a liar, always a liar.

[fsquid]

Reading the article, it would appear that the alleged "lies" are all reasonable differences of opinion. A lot of them are questioning cost and usage estimates by entities that have a track record of underestimating costs and overestimating demand for similar projects.

The biggest problem with all these projects is that they aren't really high speed rail. Masochism shuts down a project to build a 39mph train and that's a "lie" because those same people who routinely blow estimates now say it will really be a 50mph train? News flash: 50mph isn't worth a damn either.

High speed rail is 120-150 mph minimum, on dedicated tracks, with creature comforts in the cars at least equivalent of business class airline travel. I'm strongly in favor of high speed rail when it means that, and have locked horns with many of my friends to the right of me on that. But these projects are not high speed rail.

[thelakelander]

I'm actually in favor of conventional corridor style intercity rail with a mix of local and express trains.  You can achieve better ridership for a fraction of the cost running conventional rail instead of HSR on many of the ill-fated proposed HSR corridors. 

[fsquid]

I'm actually in favor of conventional corridor style intercity rail with a mix of local and express trains.  You can achieve better ridership for a fraction of the cost running conventional rail instead of HSR on many of the ill-fated proposed HSR corridors.

I don't disagree with that either.  I was just pointing out the fallacy in the original post and the blog link posted.

[ChriswUfGator]

I hate Rick Scott, but I think the one decent thing he's done is kill the rail proposal. I think we should have a workable rail network, the problem is that this wasn't it. The proposed stations were mostly located in asinine spots where you'd be forced to drive a car to get to the train. At which point everybody would just drive to their destination and be done with it. I know I had this argument with folks before, but Scott did us a favor. If this had turned into the boondoggle it inevitably would have been, it would be that much harder later to garner public support for a functional system.

[acme54321]

Rick Scott did us a favor.  Tampa-Orlando "HSR" was set for failure.  You could just drive between Tampa and Orlando in the same time as ride that train, and have a car when you get to Orlando, which is pretty much a requirement. 

[tufsu1]

You could just drive between Tampa and Orlando in the same time as ride that train

not in 2035 you couldn't....unless of course they widen I-4, which there are now plans to do...gee, how much will that cost?

[thelakelander]

Let me guess.  When its all said and done about twice or three times as much as a train would.......and traffic would still clog up because roadway expansion doesn't solve traffic congestion if additional land development is continued to be allowed.