In a blog post on The Hill, which is normally a respected Washington insider website, an article appeared this week that the writer apparently did not bother to let facts get in the way of her Texas high speed rail story.
Crystal Wright, in her May 13, 2016 blog gets it wrong, way wrong. The posting said that "Texas Central Railway, a private company, is racing down the tracks to build a taxpayer subsidized $10 billion bullet train from Houston to Dallas." She compares TCR to Amtrak, which receives a small federal subsidy each year and with President Obama's misguided attempt to pump $11 billion in federal funds into public high speed rail projects. TCR is private equity flowing into a private project. Where is the taxpayer subsidy to which you refer?
Apples and oranges.
Ms. Wright indicated that TCR boasts that the project will create 10,000 jobs but she says that TCR neglects to mention most of those jobs will be created in Japan".
Yes that is somewhat true. We have no real high speed technology in this country because we have been so highway-centric for decades. The Federal Railroad Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation have no historical background on what is involved to run trains at 200 miles per hour and it's a learning curve for them. Someone has to build the trains somewhere. If a foreign company has the facilities and can supply what we need, we buy it. iPhones aren't made in the U.S.A. and neither are many parts of the cars we drive. The U.S. doesn't have the qualified talent that it takes to build and design a 200 mile per hour bullet train. So for a private company to import the technology and get America's first true high speed rail line up and running is a bad thing? What will happen if Texas Central is successful and it creates a whole new manufacturing sector in this country?
Ms Wright apparently doesn't realize that the energy sector in Texas is in the dumps with layoffs and bankruptcies. Putting thousands of people to work building a high speed rail project in Texas is a good thing, is it not? We will need engineers, surveyors, lots of steel and concrete, people to man the trains and sell the tickets. It's called commerce and the last time I looked I thought conservatives like Ms. Wright were in favor of private enterprise.
A report by the Reason Foundation—a respected free-market think tank—is often cited as proof that a national high-speed rail network doesn’t make sense in America and was used as part of the hit piece on Texas Central.
However, Transportation Policy Analyst Baruch Feigenbaum, in a May 18, 2015 Reason Foundation article points out "The Texas high-speed rail proposal is intriguing. Proposed as a private operation with funding and guidance from Central Japan Railway Company the proposal is already far more promising than any of the Obama Administration’s previous lines. Nobody knows if such a private line can succeed, but Texas Central Railway certainly deserves a chance to try." Others have echoed the same sentiment.
Ms. Wright also states "Last but not least, this project will be funded almost entirely through government-backed loans and Japanese investors." If she did her homework she would find that some major U.S. contractors have already signed on with in-kind development tools and that real life Texans recently infused millions of dollars into the current phase of the project.
The people and entities that choose to invest equity in the high speed rail project or to buy its bonds will either sink with it or swim with a profit down the road. Ms. Wright should be familiar with how a private company starts from scratch. Texas Central should be able to use the tools and develop it's plan just like any other U.S. Corporation is allowed to do. Without the misguided rhetoric from bloggers with poor information gathering skills.
Crystal Wright, in her May 13, 2016 blog gets it wrong, way wrong. The posting said that "Texas Central Railway, a private company, is racing down the tracks to build a taxpayer subsidized $10 billion bullet train from Houston to Dallas." She compares TCR to Amtrak, which receives a small federal subsidy each year and with President Obama's misguided attempt to pump $11 billion in federal funds into public high speed rail projects. TCR is private equity flowing into a private project. Where is the taxpayer subsidy to which you refer?
Apples and oranges.
Ms. Wright indicated that TCR boasts that the project will create 10,000 jobs but she says that TCR neglects to mention most of those jobs will be created in Japan".
Yes that is somewhat true. We have no real high speed technology in this country because we have been so highway-centric for decades. The Federal Railroad Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation have no historical background on what is involved to run trains at 200 miles per hour and it's a learning curve for them. Someone has to build the trains somewhere. If a foreign company has the facilities and can supply what we need, we buy it. iPhones aren't made in the U.S.A. and neither are many parts of the cars we drive. The U.S. doesn't have the qualified talent that it takes to build and design a 200 mile per hour bullet train. So for a private company to import the technology and get America's first true high speed rail line up and running is a bad thing? What will happen if Texas Central is successful and it creates a whole new manufacturing sector in this country?
Ms Wright apparently doesn't realize that the energy sector in Texas is in the dumps with layoffs and bankruptcies. Putting thousands of people to work building a high speed rail project in Texas is a good thing, is it not? We will need engineers, surveyors, lots of steel and concrete, people to man the trains and sell the tickets. It's called commerce and the last time I looked I thought conservatives like Ms. Wright were in favor of private enterprise.
A report by the Reason Foundation—a respected free-market think tank—is often cited as proof that a national high-speed rail network doesn’t make sense in America and was used as part of the hit piece on Texas Central.
However, Transportation Policy Analyst Baruch Feigenbaum, in a May 18, 2015 Reason Foundation article points out "The Texas high-speed rail proposal is intriguing. Proposed as a private operation with funding and guidance from Central Japan Railway Company the proposal is already far more promising than any of the Obama Administration’s previous lines. Nobody knows if such a private line can succeed, but Texas Central Railway certainly deserves a chance to try." Others have echoed the same sentiment.
Ms. Wright also states "Last but not least, this project will be funded almost entirely through government-backed loans and Japanese investors." If she did her homework she would find that some major U.S. contractors have already signed on with in-kind development tools and that real life Texans recently infused millions of dollars into the current phase of the project.
The people and entities that choose to invest equity in the high speed rail project or to buy its bonds will either sink with it or swim with a profit down the road. Ms. Wright should be familiar with how a private company starts from scratch. Texas Central should be able to use the tools and develop it's plan just like any other U.S. Corporation is allowed to do. Without the misguided rhetoric from bloggers with poor information gathering skills.