The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
The Biden administration recently announced $3B in funding for Brightline West, a new 218-mile high-speed rail connection between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
QUESTION: Is this a waste of money or money well spent?
Talk about it.
31 comments
Only if the Las Vegas casinos pay for it, statewide, casinos revenue was close to 15 billion last year alone.
How much is Las Vegas chipping in? They are the ones who will benefit.
Oh look, CA is $68 billion in debt. I have a better idea for the money.
Ridiculous
High speed train between LA and Vegas. Who benefits from that? I would agree Vegas should be on the hook for that. Is this part of the green new deal?
Knowing what this kind of project is, how much will the cost balloon before it is finished?
Also seems the Goobermint pouring 3.1B more into the SF to LA boondoggle.
https://reason.com/2023/12/12/america-taking-a-high-speed-train-to-bankruptcy/
A lot of people drive to Vegas from LA to see a show and/or gamble, so It will certainly relieve a lot of traffic congestion on the I-15 freeway. The habitual gamblers in SoCal would probably like it, they can zip on over to Vegas, have their fun, and be home in time for dinner. It will be more useful than Newsom’s train to nowhere. I say, go for it.
$3 billion today, by next year, $7 billion, then, by the time the first bit of track is ready to be laid, projections would be closer to $20 billion. All for a late 19th/20th century mode of transportation cited as revolutionary and progress by an America hating president. We see how useful the SF to LA train will be. Voted for in 2008, and still primarily in the “environmental clearance” for a system few will use, and will, if ever built, just be a taxpayer money suck every year, to the tunes of many billions.
$3B…LMAO…If somehow approved, that figure will jump 20x ten years down the road as the two states fight over costs and environmental issues.
It’s an election year and why should DEMs not hold true to form using taxpayer dollars to get hefty campaign contributions and votes from construction trade unions. That’s the reason they waited. Been doing it for as long as I can remember. It’s the way of the swamp creatures.
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Yet you keep electing them . . . . . . must like being played for the witless chump.
This will actually get built, they are using I15 median. Same private company that recently completed Miami to Orlando high speed train.
Definition of insanity – doing something over and over and expecting a different result.
💰 Who benefits? Vegas!
Vegas should pay! 💰
Another money-laundering scheme like the Bullet Train to Nowhere.
Money laundering scheme. Brightline West is a private company and the $3B is really like angel investment money in the tech industry. Think Elon Musk who was able to build his companies because of continuing federal taxpayer subsidies. Yes, continuing. Both Tesla and SpaceX have recently depended on taxpayer subsidies to stay in business, with SpaceX almost entirely reliant on NASA government contracts. Musk gets to keep the monetary benefits, even if he pays back some of the original subsidy amount. But, remember, the value of the money is lost over time so if Musk isn’t charged interest for his subsidy, he is never really paying us back the full amount he took. Taxpayers will bear the cost and any associated start up risk but Brightline West and any private investors in the company will get all monetary benefits.
Potentially they might get more done because the State of Nevada is in charge of the money instead of California. But, like Elon Musk, you can expect this to go on and on for years and years so Brightline CEOS can have a steady stream of income.
Don’t forget – California predicted a $98 billion surplus that has now become a $30 billion deficit that is predicted to reach up to a $68 billion deficit this upcoming budget. No sign California would manage these federal funds any better. Go ahead and keep on giving them money, though, without oversight and then complaining the roads are still bad and BART can’t run on time in a straight line from Concord to SF.
I read about this project a while back and the plans were for the train to go from Apple Valley, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was supposed to be built and operated by the same company that operates the high speed rail system in Florida.
Same company. Construction also largely funded by taxpayer money.
Makes more sense than the high speed train through the valley. I’m a big NO for that one!
Plans are to run train from Rancho Cucamonga, which is 40 miles south east from LA. This is a complete waste of money. Depending on departure, getting to Rancho Cucamonga from LA can take over an hour, if you don’t get in an accident or road raged by a methed out weaver.
It could work if they combine freight and passenger rail cars to assist people moving from California to Nevada.
$3 billion will just be the down payment and we all know it. No rail system can support itself here. We’ve proven that to the point of comedy.
ATTICUS THRAXX,
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Amtrak is in the process of major expansions across the US. They’re going to be extending rail lines, expanding routes, and adding many new stops and depots.
If you build it they will come?
That works for baseball fields in Iowa, not so much for trains in California.
Amtrak does not support itself. It gets federal and state funding Black Knight.
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Depends. What is the current estimated cost of the project?
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Okay… now quintuple it because we all know the currest estimate cherry-picks inclusions and exclusions.
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Total best estimate $128 Billion Lol!!!!!!!
Don’t we already have that with stations in LA, Burbank, Long Beach, Orange County, San Diego, Ontario, and Palm Springs? It’s called Southwest Airlines. And JSX. Why spend $3 billion (it will end up being at least double that) when we have jets flying from all over the Southland into Vegas?
Well, if we have to pay for it anyway, and we know we will…… then I vote that it is a One-Way track🙄…😝
In theory this route might actually make sense. In reality it isn’t even going to LA, but Rancho Cucamonga. That’s like a train “to San Francisco” that ends in Livermore. And no doubt the cost will be absurd.
Nope, not until the one that was hyped SF or Sacramento to LA is completed. Which will be never.
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