Will politics be the deciding factor for the American entry into high speed rail, or economics and the free market sytem? I think you already know the answer to that one. From The Heartland Institute comes this report on what the Chinese are running into with their high speed trains and it will be a train wreck if America follows suit.
Learning from China’s 'Fast Train to Trouble'
China’s leading English-language business magazine, Caixin Weekly, recently ran a cover story highly critical of China’s much-hyped high-speed-rail projects. I hope you can take a few minutes to read it and consider how it applies to transportation policy here in the United States. (Click the image below or go here to download the PDF.)
President Barack Obama is determined to spend billions of dollars we don’t have on high-speed-rail projects. He already has sprinkled about $8 billion from his inaugural “stimulus” program on rail projects across the country.
The most “shovel-ready” plan is in California, which promises to get travelers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a brisk 2 hours, 40 minutes. To meet federal deadlines and mandates, the state is prepared to build its first leg of what is projected to be (at least) a $65 billion project essentially in the middle of nowhere – from Borden to Corcoran. Borden is a ghost town on the outskirts of Madera (pop. 57,000) and Corcoran (pop. 25,000) is most famous for housing prison units with “celebrity” inmates Charles Manson and Phil Spector.
The absurd fashion in which the California project is developing should be enough to scuttle these taxpayer-subsidized high-speed boondoggles once and for all. But the news out of China is even more instructive. According to the article:
■ Even the Communist Chinese government is troubled by the level of corruption involved in its construction project.
■ The first 115-kilometer section of high-speed rail cost 185 million yuan, nearly twice projections.
■ Two months after its 2010 opening, the high-speed line from Beijing to Fuzhou closed for lack of passengers.
■ The displacement of traditional rail service could “cause social instability.”
■ “Some say the great leap for fast-track construction could eventually bring down [China’s] entire banking system.”
I encourage you to read this article and share it with friends – and even a politician or two. The disastrous results of China’s rush to build the world’s best high-speed-rail system might be the most under-reported important story of the year.
The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago and Washington, DC. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.heartland.org or call 312/377-4000.
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