How this story didn't see the light of day is beyond me, but BJ's rejection of stimulus money to build a rail line between Baton Rouge & New Orleans has had a very negative effect on job creation and tax revenues.
Creating that line would have spawned over 10,000 permanent jobs. Hard to believe? The rail line (killed by Scott Walker) in Wisconsin between Madison and Milwaukee is 90 miles long and, according to a 2006 economic analysis, it would have created nearly 10,000 jobs.
A 90 mile train line would need an infrastructure to support it, not just the porters and conductors and brakemen. There would also be repairmen, cleaning crews, station employees, restaurant employees, food purveyors--the list goes on and on.
The state would benefit from sales tax collected on everything sold to the passengers AND the $18 million annual cost cited by Jindal is compleatly bogus. The Feds would pay nearly all the maintenance costs. And if you don't think that people would use that train just to go to and from the Airport, well, you've been drinking the Tea. That travel alone would reduce traffic on the I-10, and so reduce accidents and the public cost of dealing with those accidents and the traffic snarls they cause.
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