Comments on: riding on the Marrakesh Express? http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/12/04/do-we-know-were-riding-on-the-marrakesh-express/ Getting around the Bay Area with Denis Cuff and the Queen of the Road Tue, 17 May 2011 06:04:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Guy Span http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/12/04/do-we-know-were-riding-on-the-marrakesh-express/comment-page-1/#comment-2219 Guy Span Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:36:54 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/12/04/do-we-know-were-riding-on-the-marrakesh-express/#comment-2219 High Speed Rail was invented in Japan, a country known for its population density in fairly close cities. It is actually profitable at this point, on an operating basis, but I haven’t a clue if they paid back the enormous capital investment.

Outside of that level of density, HSR has not turned an operating profit. However, looming on the horizon are potential EPA regulations to cover airplanes. Depending on the effects, this might prove a boon to HSR.

We must be aware that nearly every mega-project has never come in on budget and a very few on-time. For a discussion of mega-projects, including BART, the Big Dig and Japan’s High Speed Rail, see: Big, Fat Lies

http://baycrossings.com/dispnews.asp?id=399

]]> By: Reedman http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/12/04/do-we-know-were-riding-on-the-marrakesh-express/comment-page-1/#comment-2218 Reedman Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:52:15 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/12/04/do-we-know-were-riding-on-the-marrakesh-express/#comment-2218 According to http://www.timeanddate.com it is 191 air miles between Casablanca and Tangiers.
It is about 7.73 dirhams to the dollar. So they are talking about $2.6 billion dollars. And for
260 land miles, this is about $10 million dollars per mile. For reference
the BART extension to SFO cost about $200 million per mile, the proposed Chinatown
light rail extension estimates at about $1 billion per mile.

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