U.S. High-Speed Rail Association’s Kunz Appears on Fox Business Channel

Andy Kunz, President of the U.S. High-Speed Rail Association, appeared on Fox Business’ Varney & Co. today.  Kunz put up a good defense of the High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program against the hostile program host—Stuart Varney—pointing to the economic benefits high-speed rail in California would bring, and the solutions it provides to congestion, pollution, and oil dependency.

Varney was unmoved, saying that “high-speed rail, despite all this taxpayer money, is dead in America.”  And when Kunz responded to Varney’s comment about the absence of profitable high-speed rail systems by pointing out—correctly—that all transportation is subsidized, Varney visibly grimaced (as in disbelief).

Kunz might have pointed to a Pew Charitable Trust SubsidyScope study, which found that between 2000 and 2009, highways received a total direct expenditure subsidy (public expenditure minus revenue like gas taxes, tolls, taxes on tires, etc.) of $360 billion.  Now compare that to passenger rail, which in the same period received a total direct expenditure subsidy (public expenditure minus revenue, like ticket sales, concessions, advertising, etc.) of $2.4 billion.

The infrastructure we build today will determine how well we are able to accommodate the 130 million additional Americans that will join the population in the next 40 years.  The numbers clearly show we can’t afford a roads-only approach.

Watch: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1082468182001/high-speed-high-cost-rail/