High Speed Rail....Why???

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- States applied for billions of dollars for passenger-rail projects Monday, marking the start of a stimulus program designed to kick-start high-speed rail service in the U.S.

California alone submitted 42 applications, seeking $1.1 billion, according to Bill Bronte, rail division chief at the California Department of Transportation. Virginia asked for $75 million to lay 11.4 miles of track along the busy I-95 corridor south of Washington, D.C. North Carolina applied for six projects totaling $76 million, including work needed to establish faster passenger rail service heading north from Raleigh.

It seems like every time there is a need for an infrastructure project high speed rail rears it's ugly head. Why? We have these wonderful things called airplanes, they are very fast, safe and convenient. They keep fares down due to a thing called competition. This allows people living in Chicago to fly, in about 3 hours time, to Orlando for $99 dollars.

What if we took all the money slated to go to high speed rails and put that towards parking garages, runways and flight control improvements. I would love to bitch about airline travel but for the most part, "Homeland Security" exempted, it's really kinda hassle free.

Is this the best thing we can waste our money on? If I want to get from Orlando to Tampa I will hop in my car and will be there in about 90 minutes, no problems. How about we tackle this problem.... Chicago to Naperville, Phoenix to Gilbert, Dallas to Flower Mound, Orlando to Kissimee. I haven't been there in years but I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Metra station at Rt. 59 in Naperville has less than no parking, we could build a parking garage!

You wonder why as a country we are 12 TRILLION dollars in the hole, well here is your answer. Build something really expensive we don't need that will have a ton of legacy costs and completely ignore the needs of millions of people just trying to get home for dinner.

Last time I checked the last public national railroad went bankrupt in the 1970's and to this day is still owned by the Federal Government. Isn't one railway enough?