Posted on 01/07/2015 10:35:00 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Talk about a trainwreck.
Today, California broke ground on another disastrous government-funded project: high-speed rail that will eventually go from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The project is estimated to cost $68 billion. The plan is that the private sector will ultimately invest around one-third of the total cost, but so far, there have been no takers.
And it’s no wonder. It’s hard to see how this project makes sense.
Backers say the train will be able to make the trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under 2 hours, 40 minutes. However, according to a 2013 Reason Foundation study, it’s likely the trip will ultimately take around four hours (and sometimes closer to five hours) for various reasons (for example, the high-speed train will share tracks with slower trains). . .
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
I wonder what the fare will be for the train? I have flown from SF to LA and back a few times. It only took about 1 hour. I think I will not take the train. Jerry Brown can go to you know where.
We’ll have to wait four years before getting a new governor with brain enough to stop this wasteful project once and for all.
Round trip: SFO - LAX - $131 1.5 hours each direction (assuming ground delays, which are common.), plane
Round trip: SFO - LAX - $154 12 hours each direction, train and bus.
Somehow, a hundred billion dollar train project is going to double the travel time to and from SFO, and likely cost more. Why not widen the 5? That’d cut travel times right there for car, and likely save more energy than the entire train project...
I wouldn’t bet on the next Governor having MORE brains than Moonbeam Brown.
The reason for breaking ground is political: to give geezer Jerry Brown a dubious legacy.
There is no great public or market demand for HSR in California. If there was, government would not have to be involved in it in the first place.
And the scam only includes laying down track, not putting into place rolling stock and infrastructure and associated operating and maintenance costs.
California voters were sold a bill of goods in 2008 with a too good to be true price tag.
Something tells me it will never be built.
Just more crony capitalism on a grand scale. We’re paying for these guys’ gold-plated retirement.
I have suggested similar things. The high-speed rail is insane. Better to spend money on improving current highways into metro areas. In the SF Bay Area, highway 880 is perpetually bottlenecked, despite recent addition of a lane. We need improved roads and more bridges. Spend the money this way, and it'll be far cheaper and more efficent than high-speed rail to nowhere. I've driven the SF to LA route many times, as well as flying. It works. If I want to be there quick, I fly, and it takes an hour. Stop the high-speed rail boondoggle!
“2 hours, 40 minutes”
REALLY? I just flew to CANADA (Vancouver, BC) from L.A. during the holiday season and that’s the flight time it takes. Back and forth on average. Why would I want to travel by train in the same time again in illegals-infested state?
Oh, government has to be involved because of the Federal Railroad Administration and its myriad regulations, especially when it comes to passenger trains. They control the game and make it zero-sum, although in reality it’s always in the negative integers.
The federal government has been promising, for no less than 46 years, trains running between New York and Washington DC at 160 mph. When that train first showed up in 1969, they ran it at a “blistering” 110 mph top speed instead.
It’s like the Big Dig was in Boston - A long term pot of Government money used to float the Unions (their election campaign staff in waiting) and to enrich their main contributors with fat contracts.
The Big Dig ended up over ten times more expensive than initial forecasts.
This time the ChiComs are being dealt in for a big slice of the pie, because they really give sweet kickbacks.
It is being built through the Central Valley, along the 43, for the illegal farm workers to travel.
It will never go from LA to SF, but I predict it will go to Mexico.
You are 100% correct.
We need more and wider freeways.
If you took a self driving car from LA to San Fran, you would get there as fast, would still be able to use the time in the car productively, and have a car at your destination.
Nah, high speed rail is a good idea. however putting government in charge and making tax payers foot the bill is a recipe for disaster.
The problem is the gub'ment will not allow private enterprise to operate such a system in the USA. Because if they were to prove successful it would put the government run mass transit monopoly in danger of being handed over to private enterprise.
Somewhere, Willie Green is smiling.
“Improved roads and more bridges” was the liberal solution 60 years ago. Why double down on liberalism?
SEATTLE -- Seattle Tunnel Partners are back at work digging the access pit to the tunnel machine Bertha.
Excavation came to a halt last month when some seashells were discovered during the dig.
The state says they should now be able to reach Bertha to make repairs on the damaged machine by December. If all goes as planned boring through land beneath the waterfront would resume by the end of March.
The tunneling machine has been stopped since December 2013 when workers discovered it had sustained damage and needed repair before it could dig any further.
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