Federal funding for high-speed rail would end under the House fiscal year 2014 budget introduced by Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI). Costly high-speed rail and other intercity rail projects are not federal priorities, especially in this era of trillion-dollar budget deficits. They should not be exempt from budget cuts. …
Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R–AL) and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) sent a letter yesterday to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, urging the Department of Transportation to reject a $5.5 billion gamble on high-speed rail. The train, called XpressWest, would run from Victorville, California, to Las …
Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood is moving on. In an e-mail to DOT employees announcing his plans to leave, LaHood highlighted what he considers to be “remarkable accomplishments” during his four years leading the agency: We helped jumpstart the economy and put our fellow Americans back to work …
President Obama hinted toward at least one aspect of his second-term agenda during yesterday’s inaugural address: more transportation “investment.” No surprise there. Obama’s past budget requests, State of the Union speeches, and the American Jobs Act of 2011 plan have all been peppered with calls for increased federal spending on …
Even as the President and Congress have again failed to deal with the genuine fiscal threats facing the nation, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is considering gambling $5.5 billion in taxpayer funds on a high-speed train to Las Vegas. The loan could be approved under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad …
Outdated forecast data containing rosy economic assumptions and signaling potential cost overruns plagues the planned $6.9 billion XpressWest high-speed rail project connecting Victorville, CA, to Las Vegas, NV, according to a new Reason Foundation report. If it fails, the seriously flawed plan could put taxpayers on the hook for billions. …
China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable last week: The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, …
Imagine a high-speed train zooming down hundreds of miles of glistening train track stretching across sunny California, connecting Anaheim to San Francisco. It’s a bullet train dream, and it’s a prime example of President Barack Obama’s latest plan to create jobs in America. The trouble is that this dream is …
Want a fast way to blow some taxpayer dollars? Buy a ticket on President Barack Obama’s high-speed spending trains. High-speed rail is one of the president’s pie-in-the-sky green energy dreams, which would do little to relieve Americans who are suffering the effects of high gasoline prices. The president reaffirmed his …
