A Voter’s Response to High Speed Rail: Are You Kidding Me? |

$4 billion is the price tag for a high-speed rail line from Columbus to Atlanta.

Well, $4 billion to BUILD it, assuming the early figures aren’t underestimated. And assuming the government can keep the contractors on schedule, you can expect to start using your new high-speed rail in just… 20 YEARS. (I’m 31, so I’ll be able to take it for a spin once I’m over the hill.)

The train will take off from the Columbus Airport and take you to the Atlanta Airport, so you’ll have to get yourself to the airport first. Once you’re there, you’ll need to purchase a one-way, one stop, ticket for $41.42.Oh wait, there is more. Before you reach Atlanta, you will have to stop in Newnan. From Newnan, you will be off to Atlanta! And once you’ve reached your destination, you’ll need to take a bus or rent a car to get into the city. (Maybe you should have just driven a car to begin with?) Seems like an awfully lot of trouble for 4 billion dollars and two decades worth of wait, but that’s just me.

Listen, I know you might be a little concerned about committing your hard-earned tax dollars to this monumental project, but just think – a lot of politicians really want this; our own Mayor, for example. She’s the rail’s biggest local cheerleader and has already stuck it to Georgia taxpayers to the tune of $350,000 just to study the POSSIBILITY of building it. That is $350,000 dollars of our money, being thrown at a study when we have vacancies in our police department and an unstable city bond rating.

“In Columbus, Georgia, we do big things,” Mrs. Tomlinson remarked at the 2014 State of the City Address. By this, I must assume that she means we spend a lot of money on big things. And by “we” I must assume she means her. After all, instead of a balanced budget and around 90 days in our reserves, we now have over a 6 ½ million dollar deficit and have cut our reserves by a third of what they were since before the Tomlinson administration. Those are extremely big things, unfortunately not big in a good way. So we can’t avoid going further in the hole now, can we? Mayor Tomlinson wants high-speed rail. What other option do we have?

When asked about high-speed rail at the mayoral debate, challenger Colin Martin replied, “It’s an interesting idea. … I’d like to see us focus on some more immediate needs first. … If we’re going to make a priority list, I think [Fort Benning] needs to be at the top, and then secondly, we need to continue to grow jobs for all of our citizens. That, to me, is more important.”

via A Voter’s Response to High Speed Rail: Are You Kidding Me? |.