Source Notes 9

Study: California’s High-Speed Rail System Will Cost Tens of Billions More Than Estimated, Adding to State Deficit (Reason Foundation)

Summary:

A report by the Reason Foundation says that the revenues, ridership, and travel times  of a new high-speed rail project in California will fall short of the state’s 2030 expectations.  This directly relates to my policy question, being a report against the first high-speed rail project undertaken during the Obama administration.

Topic:

High-Speed Rail Policy

Category:

Institutional

What is it?

a committee report

Publication Information:

The name of the organization that published the report is the Reason Foundation.  The report has no listed publication date, and was published in Los Angeles.

Author:

Joseph Vranich

Location:

http://www.reason.org/ps370/

Accessed:

February 8, 2009

Support:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California

Adrian Moore, vice -president of research at the Reason Foundation

Arnold Schwarzenegger says that he will veto a new state budget to lower California’s deficit.  Adrian Moore says that high-speed rail backers are giving a best case scenario that is not realistic.

Audience and Agenda:

Quantcast placed readership of the Reason Foundation’s website at approximately 18,500 for January.  The majority of readers are over 35-years-old, Caucasian, childless, evenly distributed economically, and college-educated.  They use this source for policy and legislative information.  They expect that information from a Libertarian standpoint, mostly advocating lower financial expenditures.

The report is financed by the individuals, foundations, and corporations that donate to the Reason Foundation and advertise in its publication.  They are seeking a national audience that generally wants the government to spend less money.  They are trying to reduce government expenditures on public services, wanting to leave investment to the private market.  The auto industry is probably involved in this foundation, since the have the most to lose from rail.  The financiers of the Reason Foundation ultimately allowed this study to happen and be published.

Usefulness:

The document was created with the permission of an editor answering to the Reason Foundation’s financial backers.  Those financial backers probably include some Californian residents that don’t want to pa more taxes.

It was created to urge Californians against support of a new high-speed rail project, and to discourage other Americans from supporting high-speed rail in the future.  The Reason Foundation knows that if a project starts in California, more projects will soon follow.

The report addresses Californians tasked with paying for Proposition 1A, and any Americans that might have upcoming votes on new corridors.  It is making the argument the high-speed rail as a new policy is inefficient and wastes money. 

The report leaves out the date it was published.  It might be a strategy to hide the fact that it’s an old study, and that Californians have already accepted a new high-speed rail project.  The report also fails to detail how it came up with it’s ridership estimates for California rail.  It also selectively uses a negative comment by Schwarzenegger, avoiding his previous statements of support for high-speed rail.  It also leaves out any information on the success of government-funded high-speed rail projects in other countries.

Focusing on the problems with high-speed rail, this source relates to Source Notes 12, Source Notes 13, and Source Notes 14.  Focusing on California, this source relates to Source Notes 2, Source Notes 3, Source Notes 21, Source Notes 19, and Source Notes 28.

Works Cited:

Reason Foundation.  <http://www.reason.org/>

About Reason.  <http://www.reason.org/aboutreason.shtml>

“reason.org.”  Quantcast.  <http://www.quantcast.com/reason.org>

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Filed under: Institutional