Streetsblog and high-speed rail

True Believer

As I pointed out when he got the job, SF Streetsblog's editor Roger Rudick is a True Believer in the dumb California high-speed rail project. He still clings to that faith in spite of contrary evidence. Like all religious fanatics, Rudick doesn't spend much time looking for evidence that would undermine his faith.

His latest upbeat report on Streetsblog contains this delusional account about the profitability of high-speed rail in Germany:

The [California]authority also announced that it has signed a contract with DB Engineering & Consulting USA, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s rail operator. The idea is to start planning for train operations as the project continues construction...Deutsche Bahn runs a massive network of high-speed trains profitably in Germany and has helped other nations around the world to design and operate fast rail systems, many of which are obliterating short-haul airline routes between major cities.

"Profitably"? An article last November explains how Deutsche Bahn makes money (Hell of a way to run a railroad): 

...DB’s outward financial position may be deceptive. Although executives of the French state railway SNCF---carrying €50 billion of debt---look enviously across the Rhine at DB’s financial independence, a closer look at DB’s figures reveals a company kept on track by handouts. As well as the maintenance subsidy, the government also pours €4 billion into medium-range trains, and state and municipal authorities help fund local services. The federal government also waived its €1.75 billion dividend this year to ease DB’s financial situation (emphasis added).

All this has jacked up the company’s debt, which is now approaching the €20 billion mark. If it exceeds that level, rating agencies could downgrade its credit, making it more expensive to borrow. Right now, Germany can afford hidden rail subsidies, but the good times will not last forever...

Years ago a Spanish official provided a reality-check that California ignored (Spain’s High-Speed Rail Offers Guideposts for U.S.):

By 2020, Spain plans to spend close to 100 billion euros on infrastructure and billions more on trains. That figure could give pause to places like California, a potential high-speed corridor whose area and population are about four-fifths the size of Spain’s. “High-speed rail is good for society and it’s good for the environment, but it’s not a profitable business,” said Mr. [Iñaki] Barrón of the International Union of Railways. He reckons that only two routes in the world — between Tokyo and Osaka, and between Paris and Lyon, France — have broken even.

And the Proposition 1A legislation authorizing the high-speed rail project in 2008 specifically forbids any public subsidy to operate this system in the unlikely event it's ever built: see Section 2704.08 (c) (2) (J) and Section 2704.08 (d) (2) (D)---pages 8 and 9.