Louisiana to seek "wasteful spending" for NOLA-BR high-speed rail (1 Viewer)

[donato]

But would you love to pay for it?

Yes I would.

 

[Hey Beerman]

This whole country needs much more mass transportation via rail. Not just from city to city but from suburbs to inner-cities. I thought I remember reading somewhere about the auto industry(?) being mainly responsible for tearing up the all the streetcar lines back in the 40s/50s that NOLA started rebuilding pre-K. I wish I could live my life without owning a car, or at least driving one every day, being able to hop on a train to go downtown or to the next town over, etc.
I'm on board with the idea of how most Europeans get around.

I love how gas drops under $2/gallon and all of these kind of ideas are now "wasteful". Was last summer that long ago that people so quickly forget?

 

[Doobsdemons]

How is this going to stimulate the economy?

Simple. Some legislator's brother in law will get a fat contract to build the thing (jobs for his company). And, once built it will be operated by narcissistic, apathetic, fools who will hate you for riding. There will be a high paid commission to "oversee" the rail line. We're talkin' hundreds of turnkey jobs here. Oh, let's not forget about a governmental panel to discuss, plan and hand out that contract. That process alone will pay fat cats for no less than 2 years.

 

[City Champ]

a train that connects the CBD, BR, and the Northshore would be absolutely amazing! Can you imagine football season and the first train to BR? How about the first train to NOLA on sundays? People could live in BR and work in NOLA and vice versa. Not only that, but I would bet you would see tons of development between NOLA and BR. This is a no brainer, so I sure it will fail...

 

[porculator]

There are a lot of posts about this helping develop "in between" the two cities. But would a high speed rail have stops in between? That seems like it would defeat the purpose.

 

[wbbigtymer]

This is a no brainer, so I sure it will fail...

exactly. The fact that there's anyone who claims to know this area and be fond of it, yet be against this idea just makes you roll your eyes and think to yourself "same old ****." There's always going to be someone standing in the way of obvious 'no brainer' progress.

 

[slowmotion]

There are a lot of posts about this helping develop "in between" the two cities. But would a high speed rail have stops in between? That seems like it would defeat the purpose.

It wouldn't do much for small towns between the cities...unless, they expand the project and build a passenger train line that makes stops...but you would need a bump in population and economic growth(more jobs) in each city for that to happen.

The northeast is a good example of how trains have caused a massive growth in the area. New Jersey probably would be desolate if it were not for the New Jersey transit. New Jersey is essentially a big suburb for New York City and Philadelphia. Alot of people working in private corporations in any of those cities probably lives in New Jersey and takes NJT/MTA to go to new York and NJT/SEPTA for Philadelphia.

 

[MLU]

$110 million seems kinda cheap to me...

 

[wbbigtymer]

It wouldn't do much for small towns between the cities...unless, they expand the project and build a passenger train line that makes stops...but you would need a bump in population and economic growth(more jobs) in each city for that to happen.

The northeast is a good example of how trains have caused a massive growth in the area. New Jersey probably would be desolate if it were not for the New Jersey transit. New Jersey is essentially a big suburb for New York City and Philadelphia. Alot of people working in private corporations in any of those cities probably lives in New Jersey and takes NJT/MTA to go to new York and NJT/SEPTA for Philadelphia.

Yup, pretty much. If we expanded my dream Louisiana rail system that would link all the major cities in the state with BR being the hub into an interstate rail system with lines between Houston and N.O. and perhaps even Atlanta and N.O., that could do wonders for bringing us along.

 

[mb504]

I live in West Monroe, and I would hate to pay for a rail system that I would never use

I never drive to Monroe, so I don't use the I-20. Therefore, any funds spent to maintain or improve the I-20 is wasteful pork to me.

See how much fun that was?

 

[kennydfresh]

HIgh Speed Train = JOBS 1 + 1 = 2 simple people.

 

[triumph]

This has been debated before, particularly after Katrina. Now, I don't have a link handy, but I do recall a few of the details from the last pass. Stops included: Downtown BR, Mall of LA, Ascension(?), MSY, Downtown NO. The biggest obstacle to getting this to happen was Baton Rouge's airport. They were afraid that this line would seriously cut into their usage.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Mr. Blue Sky, you've done nothing to justify your viewpoint other than to say you disagree with me. I'm providing reasons why the Louisiana rail transit proposal is worthwhile and much needed, and you're simply taking issue with me arguing that it's more important than the vacation rail over on the left coast. Why? What is your dog in this fight other than what I'm guessing is your chance to call Jindal a hypocrite?

Seriously, why are you against the Louisiana rail proposal? It's been something we've needed since before Katrina and now we need it urgently.

see, now you're questioniing me without even reading my posts... Go back and re-read my post #35, where i say this:

and BTW i am NOT disputing the value of a NOLA-BR rail line; i actually think it's a good idea.

and i have no 'dog in this fight'-- personally, i would get very little, if any, use out of either rail line. I happen to think that they would both be very worthwhile projects (of course you'll probably ignore that statement like you've ignored most of my others that don't fit your argument)... I just find it preposterous that you would call one basically unneccessary while you suppost the other, simply because that's what Jindal's doing. Typical.

 

[dtc]

How is this going to stimulate the economy?

+++


I don't know. Maybe the people building the tracks or the station or the cars and the engines would have jobs. Maybe the ability to move quickly and cheaply from BR to NO would allow businesses and people more flexibility or efficiency and let them compete more effectively.

I don't know. How?

 

[dtc]

If they are going to do a rail system. they need to start with one from NOLA to the Northshore.

IS there no passenger service from Slidell to NOLA?