this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2024
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I’m all for more trains in general, but $12 billion?? Fucking hell that’s too much money. And Las Vegas??? A city that practically and logistically-speaking should not exist? Building a zero emissions train (theoretically awesome) that goes out into the middle of the desert to a city that is warming faster than anywhere else in America, one that will only need more access to our dwindling water supply in the future, makes zero sense to me.
I’m sure people will hate me for saying this, but we should be phasing out unsustainable cities like Las Vegas, not giving them incentives to build up even more.
12 billion dollars for a train line hundreds of miles long and possibly rebuilding some bridges is pretty cheep. And it isn't like casinos waste a lot of water to run compared to other economic activities.
And, honestly, Las Vegas isn't that unsustainable except for the heat and we already have ways of dealing with it.
Yeah, in my area, we were quoted ~$1B for a train line extension of like 10-20 miles, on largely existing track. And that's wasn't high speed rail, but light rail.
Trains are expensive. Roads are expensive ($1.5-7.7M/mile according to this site). These costs also don't include ongoing maintenance.
Trains usually cost more in the short term, and cost less longer term. So $12B today is expensive, but it also means we don't need expensive expansions to i-15 and can easily increase people moved by increasing the frequency of train runs.