How Dumb Is Our Federal Government?
Professor Mark J. Perry blogs about the government push for high-cost, "high-speed" rail -- when there's already a transportation solution in an area:
Megabus provides low-cost, non-stop express bus service twice daily between Iowa City and Chicago for fares as low as $10 each way for service on some days, and $18 and $23 on other days. The single and double decker luxury buses offer free wireless Internet, convenient power outlets for laptops and cell phones, and panoramic windows (see photo above), and the one-way trip takes less than four hours. To provide this affordable, convenient, dependable and low-cost daily bus service between Iowa City and Chicago, Megabus receives no taxpayer funding, federal or state subsidies, loan guarantees, support payments, etc.So what's the federal government's response to the "non-problem" of affordable public transportation between Iowa City and Chicago? At New Geography, Wendell Cox writes:
"The federal government is again offering money it does not have to entice a state (Iowa) to spend money that it does not have on something it does not need. The state of Iowa is being asked to provide funds to match federal funding for a so-called "high speed rail" line from Chicago to Iowa City. The new rail line would simply duplicate service that is already available (Megabus).Perhaps most surprisingly, the luxury buses make the trip faster than the so-called high speed rail line, at 3:50 hours. The trains would take more than an hour longer (5:00 hours). No one would be able to get to Chicago quicker than now. Only in America does anyone call a train that averages 45 miles per hour "high speed rail."
In Florida, we have a couple of such services. I haven't sampled them, but with the high airline ticket prices out of my relatively back-water airport, I may give them a try and fly out of Orlando.
I R A Darth Aggie at November 3, 2011 9:15 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/11/03/how_dumb_is_our.html#comment-2739134">comment from I R A Darth AggieWhen I lived by the WTC in New York, I used to take the Olympia Bus from there to Newark Airport. Huge bargain, compared to a cab, and I could just cab up to my place from the stop by the WTC for about three bucks. There are (were?) also Chinese-run buses from NY to Boston that were pretty cheap.
Amy Alkon at November 3, 2011 9:27 AM
What I find interesting is that the local city owned bus system does not have any stops at the city owned airport...
I R A Darth Aggie at November 3, 2011 9:58 AM
Yes, the upside of the bus mode is the low price. The downside is
the safety aspect. NTSB reports that the el-cheapo buses have a
passenger fatality rate seven times that of more conventional bus
lines. Lots of cites for this, including:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bus-safety-20111101,0,7778183.story
Ron at November 3, 2011 10:07 AM
Meanwhile, the California high speed rail project is already projected to be late, and double the initial cost estimate.
MarkD at November 3, 2011 11:27 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/11/03/how_dumb_is_our.html#comment-2739341">comment from RonLet's not assume government-run operations will necessarily be safer. And is the answer really spending tens of billions we don't have on a train?
Here's another LAT link, "Bullet train cost estimates rise to $98.5 billion" (just as LA Weekly managing editor Jill Stewart told me it would):
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-high-speed-rail-20111101,0,1124440.story
Amy Alkon at November 3, 2011 11:55 AM
"Only in America does anyone call a train that averages 45 miles per hour 'high speed rail.'"
The last train I took, the Roadrunner between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, probably averaged about 35 mph. On some stretches, it went so slowly that you could have jogged faster. Maybe it should be called the Roadcreeper?
When I took an overnight Amtrak train some years ago, the train left on time, but arrived four hours late, for no apparent reason. The staff wasn't particularly concerned - they seemed to have the attitude that this was pretty normal.
Anyone who has seen trains in Asia or Europe knows that it can be done right. Rail should be faster than driving - on long stretches with few stops, it should be a lot faster. How do we manage to spend so much money, only to wind up with really awful train systems?
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Alternatively: if we can't do it right, it isn't worth doing.
a_random_guy at November 3, 2011 12:28 PM
Its a train. All the cool countries have trains.
Real question: Do these busses not suck? I've never taken a bus that did not suck. Muni is horrible - passengers you don't want to be near, drivers who are unpleasant.
Christopher at November 3, 2011 7:34 PM
Bus tweet
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at November 4, 2011 1:20 AM
@Christopher
Nope, they don't suck. At least, the one from Minneapolis to Chicago, and the one from Chicago to Milwaukee don't suck. I had to travel a few years ago, and paid something like $50.00 total for the trip between two buses each way.
Megabus had clean, decently roomy seating, the seats fold back farther than plane seats do, so sleeping on the bus wasn't an issue. (The return from Chicago to Minneapolis ran from midnight to 6am.)
They also had a lot of room for luggage, and no extra charge for bringing more. They recommend only one stowaway for each person, but a friend took Megabus back and forth to college, because it was about 1/10 the cost of flying, and had no problem getting all her luggage on board each time.
The only issue I had with Megabus was that there were two separate systems, one for east coast, and one for the Midwest area, and they never intersected, so I couldn't get from Minneapolis to Boston or New York, although there are buses that run to both of those cities.
But the last time I looked at traveling with them was about two years ago, so that could be a problem that was fixed. IIRC, they were expanding and adding new cities, according to the website.
Oh, and best of all: They were on time for leaving, and when one bus got in late, so I missed the transfer, all I had to was call and the customer service rep transferred my ticket to the next bus, no charge.
Jazzhands at November 4, 2011 5:00 AM
And don't bother reading the Muni schedule; the drivers haven't read it.
Catching a Muni bus is like catching wild game. You set up where they've been spotted in the past and wait until one randomly wanders by.
Conan the Grammarian at November 4, 2011 9:19 AM
Christopher:
... which is why my country (Israel) is now dumping money into this antiquated technology.
Compare the enormous strides in gas-powered vehicles over the past decades with the relatively old - and still very wasteful - technology behind rail.
And since this blog has a libertarian slant - there isn't a rail system in the world that makes money, or even breaks even. By the very nature of the technology, railroads are all government monopolies full of unionized workers.
Of course socialists and other control freaks love forcing people to use rail - instead of deciding for themselves where they want to go. So all the planners in "cool" countries make cars unattractive and subsidize rail.
Ben David at November 5, 2011 3:40 PM
"Compare the enormous strides in gas-powered vehicles over the past decades with the relatively old - and still very wasteful - technology behind rail."
Oh, ffs. This is BS. Rail was and IS ahead of the conservation issue because the engineering task didn't allow the cheap crap put on the American highways for decades.
Another very strange idea - and totally wrong - is that "the nature of the technology" is why rail is "all government monopolies full of unionized workers". Technology has nothing to do with this. It is politics, starting with the exercise of eminent domain to seize land for the rail.
If you consider yourself a conservationist, or even leaning toward conserving natural resources, you should consider that a railroad moves freight more than 400 ton-miles per gallon of fuel, making Amy's dinky Insight look like it's burning cash.
You're looking at squabbling over land at the root of rail issues. The term, "high-speed" is used, wrongly, as advertising, nothing more. Of course, you might want to ask yourself just why you have to get there right now! I suggest that a lot of the reason is poor planning. Some Americans want to live like they walk at the mall - "Oh, look over there! Hurry!"
And of course, this planning extends a few years, What do you do on your street when you can't afford gas for any reason?
Radwaste at November 6, 2011 2:43 AM
"there isn't a rail system in the world that makes money, or even breaks even."
Every government program should make money or be dismantled.
Like the DoD, for instance. Nothing but a giant sucking hole in the budget. Get rid of it.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 6, 2011 1:39 PM
Okay, Gog: how does the Department of Defense make money?
Radwaste at November 6, 2011 5:06 PM
Okay, Gog, how would the DoD make money?
Radwaste at November 8, 2011 3:18 PM
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