{"id":8328,"date":"2013-08-26T07:34:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T11:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goldstocksforex.com\/?p=8328"},"modified":"2013-08-26T07:34:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T11:34:45","slug":"high-speed-gravy-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/26\/high-speed-gravy-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"High-speed gravy trains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Infrastructure spending is fraught with pitfalls. One of the most dangerous is lobbying by special interest groups who stand to profit from the project.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Richard Wellings from the Institute of Economic Affairs recently completed a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iea.org.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/in-the-media\/files\/IEA%20The%20High%20Speed%20Gravy%20Train%20embargoed%20until%20Monday%2019%20August%202013.pdf\" title=\"IEA Report: High-speed Gravy Train\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> on the UK&#8217;s \u00a343 billion High Speed 2 rail project &#8212; close to \u00a380 billion if fully costed &#8212; and comments:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u2019s time the government abandoned its plans to proceed with HS2. The evidence is now overwhelming that this will be unbelievably costly to the taxpayer while delivering incredibly poor value for money.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s shameful that at a time of such financial difficulty for many families the government is caving in to lobbying from businesses, local councils and self-interested politicians more concerned with winning votes than governing in the national interest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The conclusions in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iea.org.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/in-the-media\/files\/IEA%20The%20High%20Speed%20Gravy%20Train%20embargoed%20until%20Monday%2019%20August%202013.pdf\" title=\"IEA Report: High-speed Gravy Train\" target=\"_blank\">report <em>The High-Speed Gravy Train: Special Interests, Transport Policy and Government Spending<\/em><\/a> are even more damning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decision to build High Speed 2 is not justified by an analysis of the costs and benefits of the scheme. Even the government\u2019s own figures suggest that HS2 represents poor value for money compared with alternative investments in transport infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li>Ministers appear to have disregarded the economic evidence and have chosen to proceed with the project for political reasons. An analysis of the incentives facing transport policymakers provides plausible explanations for their tendency to favour a low-return, high-risk project over high-return, low-risk alternatives.<\/li>\n<li>A group of powerful special interests appears to have had a disproportionate influence on the government\u2019s decision to build HS2. The high-speed-rail lobby includes engineering firms likely to receive contracts to build the infrastructure and trains for HS2, as well as senior officials of the local authorities and transport bureaucracies that expect to benefit from the new line.<\/li>\n<li>An effective lobbying campaign in favour of HS2 was initiated and funded by concentrated interests expecting to make economic gains from the project. This effort appears to have been effective at marshalling support for the scheme among policymakers.<\/li>\n<li>\u2018Vote buying\u2019 incentives were also important in building political support for a high-speed line. The policy was initially adopted partly as a response to local opposition to Heathrow expansion.<\/li>\n<li>The main losers from HS2 &#8211; the taxpayers in every part of the UK who will be forced to fund it &#8211; are highly dispersed, and therefore have weak incentives to actively oppose it. By contrast, members of communities along the route, where losses are concentrated, have had very strong incentives to campaign. This pattern of activity has enabled the debate to be misleadingly framed in the media in terms of local objections versus national economic benefits.<\/li>\n<li>Policymakers have strong incentives to \u2018buy off\u2019 opposition along the route at the expense of taxpayers, for example by increasing the amount of tunnelling or diverting the line. The large scale of HS2, its high political salience and its potential electoral importance, increase the risk that budgets will be expanded.<\/li>\n<li>Local authorities, transport bureaucracies and business groups are already lobbying central government to fund new infrastructure along the route, with several schemes already identified. HS2 will trigger billions of pounds of additional expenditure on commercially loss-making, taxpayer-funded projects.<\/li>\n<li>Along with design changes to \u2018buy off\u2019 opposition and subsidised regeneration projects, these proposals threaten to push total spending far beyond the basic budget. \u00a380 billion plus is a plausible estimate of the overall cost, if these extras and the trains are included.<\/li>\n<li>In addition to the direct costs, there will be even larger opportunity costs from the misallocation of transport investment. Institutional reform is needed to reduce the malign influence of rent-seeking special interests on transport policy. New infrastructure could then be provided on a more economically rational basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>California is undertaking a similar scale high-speed rail project to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has proposed an alternative <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/articles\/2013-08-12\/revealed-elon-musk-explains-the-hyperloop\" title=\"Bloomberg | Revealed: Elon Musk Explains the Hyperloop, the Solar-Powered High-Speed Future of Inter-City Transportation\" target=\"_blank\">Hyperloop solution<\/a> that would transport travellers four times as fast at one-tenth of the cost. Debate still rages over whether the concept is viable, but the fact that alternatives were never adequately explored highlights the dangers inherent in allowing political control of infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n<p>Unless adequate safeguards are in place to minimize political interference and adhere to market-related rates of return on investment, taxpayer funds are likely to be wasted on gigantic projects that are an ongoing burden on the fiscal budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Infrastructure spending is fraught with pitfalls. One of the most dangerous is lobbying by special interest groups who stand to profit from the project. Dr Richard Wellings from the Institute of Economic Affairs recently completed a report on the UK&#8217;s \u00a343 billion High Speed 2 rail project &#8212; close to \u00a380 billion if fully costed &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/26\/high-speed-gravy-trains\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;High-speed gravy trains&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33],"tags":[849,1218,1767,1838,2951,3196],"class_list":["post-8328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-uk-europe-countries-regions","tag-cost-benefit-analysis","tag-elon-musk","tag-hyperloop","tag-infrastructure","tag-return-on-investment","tag-special-interest-groups"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>High-speed gravy trains - the patient investor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High-speed gravy trains - the patient investor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Infrastructure spending is fraught with pitfalls. 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Elections are an expensive business and no candidate is likely to achieve re-election without financial backers, making them especially vulnerable to outside influence. The finance industry alone made $63 million in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Big Picture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Big Picture","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/category\/the-big-picture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13653,"url":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/04\/high-speed-rail-plan-still-needs-to-prove-economic-benefits-will-outweigh-costs\/","url_meta":{"origin":8328,"position":1},"title":"High speed rail plan still needs to prove economic benefits will outweigh costs","author":"ColinTwiggs","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Double-decker TGV leaving the Gare de Lyon of Paris. Source: Alno Geoffrey Clifton, University of Sydney The CLARA private consortium claims a high speed rail network between Sydney and Melbourne could be paid for at no cost to the government through a technique known as value capture. What is still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Australia &amp; NZ&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Australia &amp; NZ","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/category\/countries-regions\/australia-nz-countries-regions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Conversation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/counter.theconversation.edu.au\/content\/63330\/count.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":57330,"url":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/05\/china-hits-minsky-iceberg-macrobusiness\/","url_meta":{"origin":8328,"position":2},"title":"China hits Minsky iceberg | Macrobusiness","author":"Colin Twiggs","date":"September 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"From David Llewellyn-Smith at Macrobusiness: Stability leads to instability is China\u2019s problem. Central planning has for so long hit growth targets via stimulus that its economy is now a debt-saturated laggard that spends so much repaying interest on unproductive assets that it can\u2019t grow. Nowhere is this more obvious than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;China &amp; HK&quot;","block_context":{"text":"China &amp; HK","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/category\/countries-regions\/china-hk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"China: Local Government Refinancing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.incrediblecharts.com\/images\/2024\/2024-09-05-china-bondissues.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.incrediblecharts.com\/images\/2024\/2024-09-05-china-bondissues.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.incrediblecharts.com\/images\/2024\/2024-09-05-china-bondissues.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25475,"url":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/27\/chinas-achilles-heel\/","url_meta":{"origin":8328,"position":3},"title":"China&#8217;s Achilles heel","author":"Colin Twiggs","date":"April 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"China's Achilles heel is investment misallocation. The CCP sets the target for GDP growth at the start of each year but China has a low level of consumption relative to GDP (due to exceptionally low wage rates), so the only way to meet these targets is through exports (which is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;China &amp; HK&quot;","block_context":{"text":"China &amp; HK","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/category\/countries-regions\/china-hk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6041,"url":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/06\/the-most-expensive-election-in-the-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":8328,"position":4},"title":"The most expensive election in history","author":"Colin Twiggs","date":"November 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Lam Thuy Vo writes: Today wraps up what is set to be the most expensive election in the history of the U.S. Total spending on federal campaigns will be about $6 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This includes both official campaign spending and spending by outside groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Other&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Other","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/category\/other\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":735,"url":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/09\/what-the-country-needs-is-a-new-new-deal-truthdig-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":8328,"position":5},"title":"A New New Deal &#8211; Truthdig","author":"ColinTwiggs","date":"September 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Decades of experience, in nations across the globe, provide ample evidence that while the private sector plays an important role, it cannot by itself provide employment for all who want to work. There is a way to do that:\u00a0 The government could serve as the \u201cemployer of last resort\u201d under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;US &amp; Canada&quot;","block_context":{"text":"US &amp; Canada","link":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/category\/countries-regions\/us-canada-countries-regions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatientinvestor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}