My view of People from New Jersey

As a New Englander, we’re practically trained from birth to not be nice to people from New Jersey.  But after this commentary by NJ Representative Albio Sires, I’m going to try and be nicer.  He’s almost too nice in advocating for high speed rail.  I’m going to help him out with some charts.

One of his main points:

During the past 50 years, the United States has invested nearly $1.3 trillion in our highways andover $484 billion in our aviation infrastructure. In contrast, rail investment has received only $67 billion over the past 31 years.

needs graphing.

The next time someone says “what a waste of money railroad is” ask them how much they want to cut in highway subsidies next year.  Or ask them if the $100 billion per year China is spending on high speed rail PER YEAR will make them more or less competitive when they’re finished?  Speaking of which, here’s the same graph with China’s investment in high-speed rail alone this year.

And just to put Obama’s federal stimulus expansion of high-speed rail into perspective.

I would put the money that Wisconsin and Florida rejected on this graph, but frankly the amount is laughable.

They Keep Stealing the Cream in the Swiss Rolls

You got to love the Swiss.  Swiss rolls.  Swiss coco.  Name something Swiss that isn’t awesome.

The Swiss are congratulating themselves after completing a tunnel link that will cut the train time for travelling between Germany and Italy by 1 hour; maybe more importantly reducing the amount of heavy pollution across the eco-sensitive Alps. http://goo.gl/bmje

The project, funded by the EU, started in 1996 and will be opened in 2017.  It’s a core part of their transportation vision.

Since the US is a global leader and we’re so awesome, I thought I would lay out some US projects on the same scale and let you know their current status.

New Jersey – New York City Tunnel.  In order to maintain New Jersey’s third lowest gasoline tax in the country, the new governor of New Jersey Chris Christie has pulled the plug on the new rail line into New York City.  Apparently, short term paving projects and keeping taxes low is more important than keeping New York City from becoming a giant traffic parking lot.  This article by DailyFinance highlights the recent transportation debacle.

California High Speed Rail. Luckily, at least one governor is supportive of a plan to reduce our dependence on airplanes and automobiles.  Governor Schwarzenegger has been very supportive of a voter-approved $40 billion plan to connect San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego with high speed rail.  And it makes sense.  As one who use to have to wait 2 hours in an Orange County airport to take a one hour flight to get back to the airport in the Bay Area so that I could drive an hour home, taking a simple fast train ride makes soooo much sense.  But California is having their share of current road funding projects, and there’s the looming election of Meg Whitman who has problems envisioning the future. http://www.cahsrblog.com/2010/07/meg-whitman-criticizes-high-speed-rail/

The Big Dig.  With a major race in Massachusetts pitting Duval Patrick against former Bay State Financer Charles Baker, the Big Dig’s financial history is in the limelight again.  http://goo.gl/NO6b Thankfully, it’s already built and we can enjoy a walkable connected North End now.  Otherwise, who knows if this would be approved.  Remember this:

The Trans-Texas Corridor.  Well here’s one project we’re glad is dead.  Rick Perry (also running in a tight election) pushed hard for a super corridor across texas.  The massive 12+ lane monument to oil has little local support and appears dead for the time being.  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6196406.html

So what have we learned from this little exercise?  The Swiss are cool people and I wish I was there.  And there are two types of leadership.  Leadership one says the US is already a great country and picks the past over the future.  Leadership two admits we have a ways to go and thinks of great ways to connect our country.  You can guess which is prevailing.