$35,461,538.46 Per Minute Saved
VIA BOORTZ / FROM WBTV: North Carolina transportation officials say they’ve reached an agreement that will allow them to obtain $461 million in federal grants to improve train service.
The agreement will allow faster and more frequent passenger service between Charlotte and Raleigh. State transportation secretary Gene Conti says the agency will seek bids for contracts for tracks, bridges and trains.
Officials say the new service would cut travel time from Charlotte to Raleigh to less than three hours, even with seven stops along the way. However, the ride will only be 13 minutes faster.
Brilliant right? $461 million in federal grants to speed up the trip from Charlotte to Raleigh by 13 minutes? I guess there is some good news though. It will also speed up the trip from Raleigh to Charlotte by 13 minutes as well. I think if you combine those using the “jobs saved”/”jobs gained” formula, that equals at least 2 days, some 48 hours of total travel time. I’m not sure exactly how the math works, but I am told it is really quite simple.
I did some “funny math” of my own and calculated the saving per minute of travel.
- $461,000,000 in federal grants / 13 minutes saved = $35,461,538.461538461538461538461538
- That’s $35,461,538.46 per minute saved on a trip from Charlotte to Raleigh.
- That’s $591,025.64 per second – just in case you were wondering.
I know an extra 780 seconds (13 minutes times 60 seconds) may be worth a few extra bucks to a New Yorker travelling daily on the subway; but to a casual traveler between Charlotte and Raleigh, this has to seem more than ridiculous.
[...] Republican Redefined: $35,461,538.46 Per Minute Saved [...]