To the editor: There is not enough economic room in California for high-speed rail to compete. (“High-speed rail financial crisis could get worse under Trump,” Dec. 18)
The 2008 Proposition 1A bond measure for high-speed rail requires that rider revenues pay for operating and maintenance costs. Unfortunately, this will never be so. Passenger demand will evaporate at the high fares needed to recover operating costs.
A train that has a higher fare than planes and is slower than planes cannot compete with planes. Even if the train is completed, aircraft will still capture a large share of travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Automobiles will capture a large share of this same market, because California’s gasoline prices, while higher than elsewhere in the United States, are still lower than other countries that have high-speed rail.
The $11 billion the High-Speed Rail Authority reports having spent so far is a sunk cost. These dollars are gone forever. They provide no justification for spending the additional $117 billion the authority estimates it needs to complete this project, which will not have enough riders to cover its costs.
James E. Moore II, Los Angeles
The writer is a professor emeritus of transportation engineering at USC.
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To the editor: Completing California’s high-speed rail project is necessary for our climate, our economy and the nation.
Air travel, by comparison, is terribly polluting of the atmosphere. Until electric-powered air travel becomes commercially viable, the high-speed rail alternative will be far more protective of the environment.
As your reporting demonstrates, the project has supported more than 14,000 jobs and generated $18 billion in economic benefits to disadvantaged Central Valley communities. Moreover, California’s example will be followed if the project is finished.
During the Civil War, as the nation’s existence was imperiled, work on the first transcontinental railroad began. During the Great Depression, when our economy tanked, California built the San Francisco–Oakland Bay and Golden Gate bridges.
Hypocritically, Elon Musk, whose Tesla and SpaceX businesses have received billions in government funding, now argues against California’s high-speed rail. Completion of the project is a matter of political will. What 25 other nations have done, California will do.
Tom Osborne, Laguna Beach