This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Dr. Michael Sanera, John Locke Foundation Director of Research and Local Government Studies.

RALEIGH — High-speed rail seems to be on everyone’s minds in Raleigh and all along the proposed rail route in North Carolina. It seems that inside-the-Beltline residents are up in arms over the proposal that would put the new rail line along north Capital Boulevard, literally in some of their backyards. Never mind that rail lines for freight and Amtrak have existed along both sides of north Capital Boulevard for years. Now it seems that the residents of the Five Points neighborhood on the west side are in a war with Mordecai neighborhood residents on the east side. Neither one wants the noise and vibrations from the new trains in their backyards.

At the same time, it seems that all of these upper-income supporters of the liberal majority on the city council profess to support high-speed rail. They think it is a grand idea as long as other people put up with the noise, vibrations, and inconvenience of these trains. It is also interesting to note that Mayor Charles Meeker and the liberal city council members, no matter how they vote, are likely to lose part of their inside-the-Beltline liberal constituency.

There is one way that both sides can win, and that is to scuttle the entire project. Both sides should recognize the mountain of evidence that this project is a colossal waste of federal and state tax money.

Last year, before the state applied for the federal high-speed rail money, we took a look at the federal high-speed plan and found it wanting. Nationally recognized transit expert Randal O’Toole wrote our report, “Why North Carolina Should Not Build High Speed Rail.”

Most newspaper accounts of this new rail system mislead readers by reporting that the train will go 110 mph. This is the maximum speed possible on some limited routes. The average speed in North Carolina due to track conditions and stops is far from “high-speed” because it averages only 55 to 75 mph, about the same as auto travel on interstate highways.

Comparisons to the nation’s interstate highway system are useful. While the interstate system has been the backbone of our national transportation system since it was started in the 1950s, the “moderate-speed” rail system, if built nationwide, would carry only one-tenth the number of people at twice the cost, nearly $1 trillion.

North Carolina’s state and federal taxpayers are not only on the hook for building the expensive system, they will be stuck with the nearly $25 million in operating subsidies every year. What is the benefit of these high costs? The average North Carolinian will take one round trip on these trains only once in every 27 years.

But maybe the high costs are worth it because traveling by train benefits the environment. This is also wrong. Traveling between cities by auto is already as energy-efficient as taking Amtrak. Florida has determined that the best alternative for the environment is the “No Build Alternative.”

Besides transportation, the federal government has other objectives for this rail line. Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has proclaimed that his transit regulations will include an effort to “coerce people out of their cars.” Thus, state and local governments will likely be forced, via federal regulations, to diminish further the property rights of landowners near the rail line.

With all of these negatives, who does support the system? Who benefits from it? Average taxpayers who will be paying the multibillion-dollar bills certainly are not benefiting. Since the rail lines are designed to connect center cities, the beneficiaries are wealthy business and government elites — lawyers, bankers, and bureaucrats — who live or work downtown. They see an advantage to traveling center city to center city, rather than using faster air travel and then renting a car to drive to meetings downtown. And they are not shy about sticking us with the bill for personal convenience.

Add “moderate-speed” rail to the already very long list of “Robin Hood in reverse” policies coming out of Washington and Raleigh.