LETTER: When will move past “high-speed” rail boondoggles

Anyone not familiar with the definition of insanity? Well, it’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So, it seems, it is with those pushing “high-speed” passenger trains such as the proposed, doomed-to-be a white elephant, tax-subsidy-sucking train between Las Vegas and Southern California (Monday Review-Journal Road Warrior column). Think: Las Vegas monorail. The only ones who profited from its existence were its highly paid executives.

One needs to look only at Amtrak’s track record in the commuter-rich corridor on the East Coast. That corridor ferries hundreds of thousands of commuters between major metropolises on a daily basis, yet the agency has never shown a profit, much less come close to breaking even. The one thing Amtrak is really good at is going hat in hand to Washington, D.C., to beg for billions in taxpayer subsidies.

Do you think the latest pie-in-sky boondoggle will fare any better? Do you think auto-addicted Californians are going to suddenly ditch their SUVs, pick-ups and luxury sedans to ride a train? Don’t put your hard-earned money on that possibility.