Originally Posted by
tortue
There are certain corridors where high speed rail makes sense, but is Chicago - St. Louis really one of them? Besides, how about focus some of that money back into putting metropolitan rail/commuter stuff into being a priority. Traffic still sucks in many US cities.
You can only pay off political debts if you find black holes to shovel money in cities where you have political friends.
I'm sure there are more than enough Architecture firms, lawyers, consultants, designers, etc in Chicago to spend $1.8 without ever building something.
Out here in Hawaii they want to build a light rail that will bankrupt the city/county, knowing that it will do nothing for traffic, but hey, it's all about sucking money from the Fed tit. They used to claim it would improve traffic, now even proponents say it's just about the decade of construction jobs it will produce.