A handful of politicians in red states are bizarrely pushing for taxpayer-funded “bullet trains” that seem like something right out of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. Despite the fact that Americans consistently prefer to drive, fly, and use other modes of transportation, some officials in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are still pushing for taxpayer-funded passenger trains in the Southeast.
Such trains have a history of failure. Amtrak’s Hoosier State Line between Indianapolis and Chicago just had its last trip on June 30. Residents were not satisfied with the experience of the government-run and taxpayer-subsidized train. Annual ridership collapsed by more than a thousand riders a year — losing about 10,000 riders over the last eight years.
So in April, Indiana lawmakers decided to stop throwing good money after bad, and opted to pull the plug on the $3 million state subsidy it had been providing for this passenger rail line. For context, the line operates on a $3.2 million annual budget, also getting yearly funds from county and city taxes along the route. Essentially, its funding was all subsidy, and almost no real customers.
Meanwhile, the Southern Rail Commission — a board made up of representatives from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that promotes passenger trains — is actively trying to revive an old Amtrak line that ran in the Southeast. Their proposal, sometimes called the Gulf Coast Rail Project, is to have two passenger trains run between New Orleans and Mobile.
It seems the SRC has forgotten that similar government-supported passenger trains connecting Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were discontinued for reasons all too similar to the Hoosier State Line: They were slower, less convenient, and more expensive than other forms of transportation.
Including the $33 million recently given by the Federal Railroad Administration, the $10 million from Louisiana’s big-spending Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, and the $16 million promised by Mississippi’s Department of Transportation, it looks like the SRC has pulled together roughly $60 million in hard-earned taxpayer dollars for initial studies and a couple of up-front projects. The truth is that when added to the other rail infrastructure projects, as well as long term operational and maintenance costs for this line, it will likely end up costing taxpayers much more.
And all for what?
A study by the Gulf Coast Rail Project’s own rail carrier admits that this new line would attract just 26 riders per train. Considering a Megabus trip between New Orleans and Mobile, which costs around $14 per ticket, takes 2.5 hours and the same trip on the proposed passenger trains is estimated to take more than three hours, these findings are not very surprising.
Why do government expenses keep soaring? Why are taxes going up? Why is government productivity stagnant? Well, it’s this type of foolish cronyism that’s to blame.
Meet Jim Mathews, CEO and president of the Rail Passengers Association. He likes the idea of a heavily-subsidized, little-used rail line along the coast. He explains his philosophy:
But consumers lose when government throws money at “services” Americans are not willing to pay for. Taxpayers lose when they have to pay for politicians’ bad ideas and pet projects. After all, everyone likes small children, but politicians are decidedly less popular. Why? Well, when kids play with trains they don’t spend taxpayer money, dig up the roads, or mess with traffic.
Passenger trains are low demand, money-losing projects. The SRC should kill the Gulf Coast Rail Project before any more taxpayer dollars are wasted.
Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the president of Americans for Tax Reform.
