Thursday, February 2, 2012

Extra-Credit High-Speed Rail


I think that the feasibility of the phoenix metropolitan area getting a high-speed light rail is very low. As seen from the videos just the cost of obtaining a high-speed light rail that only services about 3% of the population is not probable at all. It just doesn’t make sense for economists to support such an example initiative when people are choosing to drive or fly more and more. Another reason why a high-speed rail would not work here in the states is that unlike really high gas prices in Europe our gas prices are still manageable. Another thing that I know economists will be considering is the usability of the train tracks and how once the track lines are set they are only good for trains and that’s it. On the other hand with roads that have a life of 50 or so years they can always be upgraded  or have versatility with usage. I honestly think that we are doing good with the light rail we have right now, and we do not need a high-speed rail that is going to save us 20 minutes of our time but cost this nation billion of dollars. Also it is not ok that we spend so much money for such a small amount of people. I believe the video said that only about 17,000 people will even use the high-speed rail and honestly all that money could be used to better the lives of the millions of people in our nation. I even think that gentrification is also going to be a huge deal with the high-speed rail but also the limited number of stops the rail will be able to have.   

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