A Rebutal To High Speed Rail

From: Irreverent View

The following is a link to Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe's support for High Speed Rail, followed by my response which was originally posted in the comments section.

Mark Sharpe on trains, entitlements, and the debt

My response

I respect and appreciate Mr. Sharpe’s enthusiasm,but the content as a whole reads as a springboard to greater ambitions. His referencing federal entitlements is an effort to use fiscally conservative credentials to justify a fiscally indefensible plan. High speed rail is a money loser everywhere,including China.
I’ve been in Tampa for fourteen years now and I don’t drive which means I use Hartline to get around.I know of no one in Tampa who voluntarily rides the bus if they have a car.No one.
I am a native Philadelphian transplanted here and it is normal and in no way a stigma to ride PT in cities like Philly,New York,Chicago,Boston,Milwaukee,etc. That is because PT was well heeled a couple generations before the first car was ever assembled,and before anyone ever conceived of owning one.Most of the people I’ve met in the Tampa Bay area have never been on a bus and are puzzled that anyone does. How do you get them to ride a train? As a transplanted northerner I can tell you that the high speed hysteria is in my opinion driven by a northern provincialism unaware of the unique needs of the remaining parts of the country.
Building High Speed rail is the easy part,but how do you get people to ride it at a cost that is at best equal to or greater than driving?
The Transportation Dept estimates a cost of half a trillion dollars over twenty five years to reach the 80% of the country it hopes to service. Given the history of the Federal Government spending projections,you can reasonably assert that it is a gross underestimation of future taxpayer investments.
Moreover, the opponents of high speed rail have both history and an ever present reality on our side. Amtrak was hyped along similar lines almost forty years ago and it is a money loser with only three of the forty four routes making money. A record of 3-41 would get any Commissioner fired.
Mr.Sharpe, in his commentary offers a rebuke to those who oppose this initiave. Let’s be clear Mr Sharpe, I as well as many who oppose this proposed debacle have faith in the enduring spirit of Americans and its capacity to accomplish any feat before it. However, Mr Sharpe, your commentary with a brazen disregard for justified critism is not in truth a defense of the American people,but a rigid defense of government that is increasingly unwilling to tolerate even the most reasoned dissent.Fiscal conservatism does not require fundamental distrust of all things government, but does require a rational analysis of the facts.
Opposing high speed rail is not the the province of “hand wringers” or those who prophesy America’s doom. We do not merely “fret about” the risks. We are seeking accountability. If you are so certain of the outcome MR.Sharpe why don’t you do the “American” thing and raise private capital to provide this service as opposed to compelling an unwilling public to cough up the dough. If you’re so confident in the service it will provide and that “riders will come”, then by all means open your checkbook and take that chance. I have faith in Mark Sharpe the man and entrepreneur, but I am justly skeptical of Commissioner Mark Sharpe whose fear of personal investment would compel his constituents’ to shoulder his risk.