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Haters & High Speed Rail & Bonus: Cascadia Rail


 

Meeting Details:


Next meeting: Apr 6th: 7:30 Central

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/87119423287?pwd=eFhrMWhQRC9jL0xsVDcwMlpXT01jUT09

 

Agenda:

  • Faster Headlines

  • Badger Herald Article

  • The Haters and High Speed Rail

  • Seattle & Portland Airport

  • Cascadia Rail Meeting (April 13th)

 

Faster Headlines


How high speed trains got railroaded in Biden's infrastructure plan

Politico


Will Biden’s infrastructure plan save California’s high-speed rail project?

RT&S


Opinion: What Americans will get from Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan

Washington Post


Bullet train contractor warns of further two-year delay as state struggles to secure land

LA Times


Miami, Fort Lauderdale ... and North Miami Beach? Another city looks to woo Elon Musk

Miami Herald

Elon Musk, Miami mayor plot high-speed tunnel plans for city

Fox Business News

 


From the Captain

What the Republicans, Haters, and Loony Tunes are saying


So with a Democratic President, House, and Senate; we know that the Democrats are in support of the infrastructure package revealed last week.


However, this is the first pitch in a long game (which ironically won’t end up being played in Georgia), but how much is allocated to public transit and high speed rail is still up in the air (heck even ports and airports are unknown). Numbers will change as well as priorities; and it is important to remember that high speed rail wasn't even slipped into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 until the very end. So sit back and enjoy the ride because a lot is going to be thrown around.


Unlike the Trump Administration and their "Infrastructure Week" this plan has legs (or wheels depending on you look at it). Plus, with changes to the reconciliation process in Congress (meaning how things get approved) it looks like infrastructure can avoid the dreaded filibuster. So this proposal appear to likely to happen. The question is...what will it look like at the end?


So instead of analyzing what the current proposals are, I figured let’s take a hard right and see what the haters are saying about the infrastructure package.

 

The Party Poopers


So here are the legit Republican perspectives. To summarize, everyone is fully supportive of roads and bridges. Some Republicans are supportive of public transit (including the $80 billion going to Amtrak), while others didn't even mention it in their protests. So overall, there really no discussion on High Speed Rail. It is totally flying under the radar.


The largest issue with this group is using corporate tax increases to offset the investment in infrastructure. Which I don't think is a strong argument. The Republicans are claiming that corporate tax increases will slow the economy, but Biden plans to create thousands upon thousands of jobs counters the Republicans claims. The other argument being made is that moving to Green infrastructure will cost West Virginians jobs as traditional energy jobs move away (but they have the Hyperloop!). Of course, we all live in West Virginia.....right?


Meanwhile we know that since the Republicans have no plan of their own, they are just going to be party poopers for the infrastructure plan. However, they are only going to be successful if a Democrat or two comes to their side (Back to West Virginia). But overall, nothing that isn't expected here:


The GOP claim that only 5 to 7 percent of Biden’s plan is for ‘real infrastructure’

The Washington Post


A ‘Trojan Horse’ Infrastructure Plan

Mitch MCConnell Official Website


Mitch McConnell says the GOP won't support the infrastructure plan, report says

Business Insider


McConnell Says No Republicans Will Support Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

Forbes

 

Then we have the Haters:

Who just want to shout propaganda and claim every idea to be a radical left wing hypocrisy.


The good news here is they are going crazy about the Green New Deal. No mention of public transit or road ways being an issue. It is all about government welfare programs and sustainable misinformation for them. However, high speed rail is totally off their radar, which is a very good thing.


Rich CNNer Jim Acosta wants American taxpayers to buy him a high-speed train with Wi-Fi

Fox News


Tucker Carlson: 'I'm infuriated by the lying' about Biden's 'infrastructure bill'

Fox News


Massive spending plan needs to be cut by around 70% for Republicans to get on board, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., suggested on "Fox News Sunday."

Fox News

 

Then we have the loony tunes.

These news sources do very little research and operate primarily on emotion, and in the case of One America News I have seen better news presentations from an undergrad presentations class. However, high speed rail is not mentioned anywhere her as well.


Progressives Want Biden's Infrastructure Plan to Include $10T for Climate

Newsmax


Biden Infrastructure Plan Spends Billions to Help Pentagon Go Green

Newsmax


GOP Senator blasts infrastructure bill for removing 2017 tax cuts

One American News Network

 

The lone mention of high speed rail was an article back on March 30th from OANN, which expected Biden to include high speed rail and instead talked about how the Hyper loop would be much cheaper and faster. If you watch this video, please count the number of inaccuracies, misinformation, and misrepresentation.


White House eyes massive spending for high speed rails

One American News Network

 

Bonus: Cascadia Rail Part 1: Seattle-Tacoma Airport

For the Cascadia Rail Project, the team is now learning about the airports, airlines, and major transportation infrastructure of the corridor. This week we are going to start at the core of the Cascadia Rail Project – Seattle Tacoma Airport, or SEA-TAC for short.


SEA-TAC is very small and dense airport. In 2019, they handled 212,769 flights and nearly 24.9 million passengers s in only 3.9 square miles. Compare that Minneapolis/St. Paul which only handled 19.2 million passengers and 184,181 flights...but is 4.6 sq miles (or nearly 20% larger). For reference Madison Dane County is bigger than both these airports at 5.5 square miles. So SEA-TAC is a very tight and busy airport.


Alaska Airlines has always had its main hub at the airport and is the largest carrier with 69,652 flights in 2019, followed by Delta at 33,457 flights, and Southwest at 11,195 flights (Skywest is actually the 3rd largest but operates flights for Alaska and Delta). Also, the airport has at least 17 international carriers serving destinations as far as Dubai, Frankfurt and Beijing. Until the 2000s United even had a hub there as well, but moved most of their operations to San Francisco and Denver. However, SEA-TAC is a transportation powerhouse!

https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=1


The problem with SEA is it is maxed out, but the Puget Sound area is seeing rapid growth. The airport is in the process of rebuilding its concourses to add space, but there really is no space to expand to. The airport Is maxed out, and only threatens to become even more overcrowded as the Puget Sound Area continues to grow.

Also, in Seattle Amtrak is a player. In 2019, 35,117 passengers used the Amtrak station right outside of the airport and Seattle Union Station saw 682,132 passengers. While we don’t have route data yet (gonna take some more research Portland also saw 585,344 passengers) It can be assumed that close 500,000 Amtrak passengers could be added to the crowds at SEA-TAC AIrport

https://www.amtrak.com/about-amtrak/amtrak-facts/state-fact-sheets.html


This is the challenge: can high speed rail help reduce the overcrowding in SEA-TAC by rerouting passengers from regional flights to high speed rail? We don't see why not.


After all, in 2019 over 664,000 passengers flew between SEA-TAC and Portland alone. The airport is already next to Amtrak's Cascadia route, the economic need is there (meaning political will is there too), there is a high amount of public transit use already, and the region is growing. Seems like an easy choice to us.

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