Playing Chicken With The Train?

The Big Lug Nut's been riding the rails without fail as he campaigns for re-election and expanded passenger train service aboard Iowa Interstate Railroad.

Last month it was a special train from Valley Junction to Downtown Des Moines.

I'm sure it takes a lot of Bio-diesel to haul his Bio-mASS down the tracks and the scientific community is united in that fact.

During his last ride he predicted, "We could have Iowans from all over the state come down on Saturday morning to enjoy our farmer's market."

Yeah, sure!

Now he's telling people, "Our goal obviously is to get a high-speed rail from Chicago to Des Moines and that appears to be going very well".

And, "We've never been this close. It's never looked this positive."

Really?

He's got $3 million for the project, a 2008 feasibility study indicated it would cost an estimated $55 million for upgrades to the tracks and other start-up costs just between Chicago and Iowa City.

The cost for upgrading the tracks to Des Moines hasn't been determined.

Yet BLN believes "We're not talking about a huge capital investment".

$55 Million is chump change to him!

The Coralville Courier had a great article as to why we're wasting our money.

The administration’s proposed high-speed rail plan will cost $1,000 for every federal income taxpayer, yet the average American will ride high-speed trains less than 60 miles a year.

A report from the Public Interest Institute says that the average Iowa resident will rarely use high-speed trains.

The new report warns that the cost of these projects could grow to be hundreds of billions of dollars with very little public or environmental benefit.

More Dummycrat waste!

Finally, I love the headline out of the Quad City Times...

Culver promotes rail line project with statewide train ride

The BLN's train went from Des Moines to Council Bluffs, hardly statewide.