Passenger Trains > TX - Senate Bill Targeting Bullet Train Project Advances

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/08/bill-targeting-bullet-train-project-moves-senate-f/

"The Senate Transportation Committee voted 5-4 to pass out Senate Bill 1601, from state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, which would strip firms developing high-speed rail projects from eminent domain authority. Kolkhorst said Wednesday that she didn’t want to see private landowners lose their land for a project that she believed is likely to fail. “While I think in some countries it has worked, I don’t see a whole lot of high-speed rail across the United States,” Kolkhorst said. “I just don’t see it, and I’m not sure I want Texas to be the guinea pig on this.”"

"Four Republicans joined Kolkhorst in voting for the bill: Transportation Chairman Robert Nichols of Jacksonville, Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay, Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills and Bob Hall of Edgewood. Voting against the bill were two Houston Democrats, Rodney Ellis and Sylvia Garcia, and two North Texas Republicans, Don Huffines of Dallas and Van Taylor of Plano."

Great idea! Would have been dynamite in the 50s for highways and airports.

At the end of the day, there is a notion in many (but not all) conservative quarters that things like publicly-financed passenger conventional and high-speed rail and mass transit somehow represent a threat to basic American values and way of life.

It's pure nonsense, but that's the notion that's there and I am starting to feel that until public transit advocates in the US start addressing and trying to dispel it big time, rail and transit projects will always face and unreasonable uphill battle.......

chs7-321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> At the end of the day, there is a notion in many
> (but not all) conservative quarters that things
> like publicly-financed passenger conventional and
> high-speed rail and mass transit somehow represent
> a threat to basic American values and way of
> life.
>
> It's pure nonsense, but that's the notion that's
> there and I am starting to feel that until public
> transit advocates in the US start addressing and
> trying to dispel it big time, rail and transit
> projects will always face and unreasonable uphill
> battle.......

On Thursday, there were 150 events accross the country advocating for federal action to support funding for transportation, including mass transit.

Stand Up For Transportation

Back when freeways were being built there was oppostion to them, especially from railroads! When I was FRA in the early '80s I had a good friend in the Santa Fe lobbying operation who came to DC back during the freeway construction era to fight them. Even in the '80s he believed freeways should never have been built even though he used one to get to work every day.
When the Santa Fe proposed the Golden Gate diesel streamliner between Bakersfield and Richmond in the late 1930s, SP and their Greyhound puppet battled it tooth and toenail.
One of the things I have learned over years in politics and journalism is that most of the really dumb legislation and rules comes from business trying to screw their competitors...
 

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

BANANA:  Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody seems to be the rule of the day.  Well at least we can't blame all them there "Environ wackos" for stopping this one.

 It's Texas, trying its best to become a "third world state". Yep, I live there, but it is amazing how backward many areas of the state are becoming.

Transit is fundamentally anti conventional America. Everyday I am told that driving a big pickup, small hybrid or Tesla is where I should put my money. All sorts of good will shower on to me. And, once driverless cars are allowed on the road everything will really be perfect. Slowly attitudes are changing but many in Texas seem slower than most.

Latebeans Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BANANA:  Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near
> Anybody seems to be the rule of the day.  Well at
> least we can't blame all them there "Environ
> wackos" for stopping this one.

Only Highways.....

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Latebeans Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > BANANA:  Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere
> Near
> > Anybody seems to be the rule of the day.  Well
> at
> > least we can't blame all them there "Environ
> > wackos" for stopping this one.
>
> Only Highways.....

Interesting you mention that.

Recently, there's been a radio ad blitz in the San Francisco Bay Area by the California Alliance for Jobs to lobby the public regarding the need for more highway construction. Curious. We've been having lots of construction already (Hwy 101 around Palo Alto, I-680 HOV lanes, I-880 around San Jose, and near Hayward, and the list goes on). Seems to me the infrastructure needs were already addressed, yet they want more? The above projects needed no radio ad blitz to get funding in the past, so what's the deal here?

California Alliance for Jobs is a coalition of construction companies and their unions. If we didn't live in the age of ideological double standards, conservatives should be attacking this "Alliance" and declare highway spending to be wasteful. :-) (ain't gonna happen)

Back on topic, I don't live in Texas to know how deeply entrenched the highway interests are. Anyway, to requote what was posted by the OP...

Kolkhorst said Wednesday that she didn’t want to see private landowners lose their land for a project that she believed is likely to fail. “While I think in some countries it has worked, I don’t see a whole lot of high-speed rail across the United States,” Kolkhorst said. “I just don’t see it, and I’m not sure I want Texas to be the guinea pig on this.

Oh really? Why does she believe the project is likely to fail?

I am convinced that if I, or anyone else, were to discover the cure for cancer, there would be opposition to it.  Some people are born with negative genes.  They just can't help themselves.

warren49 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am convinced that if I, or anyone else, were to
> discover the cure for cancer, there would be
> opposition to it.  Some people are born with
> negative genes.  They just can't help themselves.

+1

Ray

Great another non-visioning American polititian..................... upset because the project wont line their pockets with cash and because heaven forbid anyone be able to enterprise such a project without the governments hand in the pot.  Will we ever advance again?  Will we ever hold the power we once had?  Will we ever have the vision and drive to accomplish things our forefathers accomplished?  Most of all why is America so anti-high speed rail? Even the great and mighty NEC doesn't rally have high speed rail.   

I feel certain that people of all political persuasions are frustrated, and worse, by the current climate, and what it all has come to these days.  Perhaps most frustrating to me is the anti-spending crowd....especially if any of that cash will in any way benefit a US citizen.  What's even worse is that this crowd seems to think any government expenditure is actually stealing from the 1%, who "own" everything....including OUR nation and OUR government " of the people, by the people and for the people".  AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA