Randy McDonald asked about traffic projections on the Rosario-Buenos Aires HST. I told him that I couldn't find any, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Evidence of absence comes from the efforts of three Argentine members of Congress. Adrián Pérez (CC-Buenos Aires), Juan Carlos Morán (CC-Buenos Aires), and Griselda Baldatta (CC-Córdoba) asked the Department of Public Investment to see the feasibility studies.
The reply? Direct from Undersecretary Manuel Weich: “The Department has not received feasibility studies for the Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba High Speed Train project.”
As Randy said, “That's a bit stunning.”
The deputies have introduced a bill that would halt an initial €38m appropriation winding its way through Congress. They've also asked the Anticorruption Office and the National Administrative Investigations prosecutor to look into the financing and construction deals. We'll see what happens. An earlier effort by two UCR senators to have the Supreme Court stop the project went nowhere, and Fernández’s faction of the Justice Party enjoys 42 out of 72 senators and 118 out of 257 deputies. So the chances aren't bad that we will see an HST connecting the cities by 2012.
Good for train buffs. Not so good for Argentina, but I suppose that there are worse ways to spend several million fistfuls of euros.
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