I know this doesn't directly relate to real estate, but the location of the rail lines will impact local real estate values. Some property sellers will make some money...look at Sonny Perdue's gains after the recent Georgia interstate meandering through his property.
But my main concern is the wasteful spending by US Congress. They are planning to spend $2.4 billion (of the $8 billion Pres. Obama set aside last year) in grants to study 54 high speed rail projects in 23 states ($4.1 to study rail transit between Atlanta and Charlotte). The Federal Railroad Administration received 132 applications from 32 states.
I'm sorry, but let's just consider rail systems between two highly concentrated populations in which the termination points are within close proximity to residential and commercial workplaces. In other words, why do I take a train to take a couple of buses to my final destination? How much does it cost to move the person on a train, to other ground transportation, to their final destination? And just because Europe and the rest of the world has high speed rail, look at their cultures and costs. I bet they use it due to their limited geographic space (i.e., Japan) and low GDP (Pakistan/India).
Bottom line: Pork and spreading the taxpayer's wealth!
Source of information: Atlanta Business Chronicle - November 5-11, 2010, 25A
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