Posted on 08/26/2018 8:15:32 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The California bullet train project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year — a construction spending rate higher than that for the Bay Bridge, Boston’s Big Dig or any U.S. transportation project in recent history.
...
“That burn rate is ludicrous,” ...James Moore, director of USC’s transportation engineering program. “It is so far outside standard experience that it doesn’t make sense to assume it will occur.”
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The actual costs will depend on the price of a pound of steel, a cubic yard of concrete, an acre of farmland or an hour of an engineer’s time in 10 or 15 years. Those prices are subject to unpredictable factors such as import tariffs, labor shortages and litigation by angry property owners.
If the rail authority misses the 2033 target date, inflation probably will raise the project’s tab by as much as $2 billion a year. That’s because tens of billions of dollars of work could get pushed into future years when costs will be higher, and the state will have to keep employees, contractors and consultants on the payroll longer.
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It was supposed to cost $33 billion and eventually reach from Sacramento to San Diego. Now, the route connects only San Francisco to Los Angeles, with the completion date pushed back 13 years.
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The bullet train project, with its record-breaking rate of spending last year, fell 31% short of the authority’s $4.5-million-a-day target. In its current fiscal year, the aim is to spend $1.8 billion, or $4.9 million a day. At its peak in fiscal 2023, spending should hit $10.7 billion — or $29 million every calendar day — according to planning documents.
...NASA spent an average of $30 million a day during the 13-year Apollo moon program (adjusted to 2018 dollars)...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
California Ping.
Start with Moonbeams!
Governor Moonbeam won’t be around to face the music when it runs like BART.
They knew the cost was being low-balled when they put it on the ballot.
And of course the idiots voted for it.
Well, here we are, the same old place for another idiotic reason.
This project is like Bermuda Triangle for money.
MARTA- Mexican Rapid Transport is a complete bust.
Don't kill the job! (The rallying cry of the Big Dig unions -> estimated at 3 billion at the start, came in at 23 billion and about 10 years late. And guess what? Teddy Kennedy (who won't be down for breakfast) got the rest of the country to pay for it.
The kickbacks for this project must be substantial.
Just one-—Moonbeam would be enough.
Who wouda thunk it?
I'm shocked I tell you, shocked.
How could this happen, it was so well planned.
If only someone had warned them. A multi Billion Dollar boondoggle? What could go wrong?
The Great Quake will hit just as that thing finally opens.
It’s only 13 years behind schedule...
Yep. But the important difference is that the money disappears into some very well-connected pockets.
The project's expected costs are $77 billion.
The SFO-LAX air route produced 3.66 million passengers in 2015. Let's be generous and round up to 4MM.
LAX-SFO Round-trip airfare runs about $225, and let's assume all 4MM passengers were round-trips.
This, the total ticket revenue produced by the LAX-SFO route is $225*(4MM /2) =$411,750,000.
Assuming every person flying today takes the train (an extremely aggressive assumption), it will take 77bln/411.75MM = 187 years to break even on this boondoggle.
I'm no fan of govt largess, but at this rate, it'd be cheaper for the state of CA to pay for everyone's flight and deep-six the project.
The project's expected costs are $77 billion.
The SFO-LAX air route produced 3.66 million passengers in 2015. Let's be generous and round up to 4MM.
LAX-SFO Round-trip airfare runs about $225, and let's assume all 4MM passengers were round-trips.
This, the total ticket revenue produced by the LAX-SFO route is $225*(4MM /2) =$411,750,000.
Assuming every person flying today takes the train (an extremely aggressive assumption), it will take 77bln/411.75MM = 187 years to break even on this boondoggle.
I'm no fan of govt largess, but at this rate, it'd be cheaper for the state of CA to pay for everyone's flight and deep-six the project.
That wasn’t fun…at all! }:-(
;-)
“I’m no fan of govt largess, but at this rate, it’d be cheaper for the state of CA to pay for everyone’s flight and deep-six the project. “
Well, back during the Vietnam War it was estimated that it would have been cheaper to build each Vietcong soldier a $350,000 home.
Why? It is doing what it was designed (politically) to do. Put hundreds of millions of dollars in the hands of Democrats and their unions. If only a few million a day go back to the politicians, that is ok.
Democrats are perfectly willing to waste $1,000 if it puts $1 in their pocket.
This is going to be just like the BIG DIG of Boston!!! A bunch of CROOKED CONTRACTORS that are big donors lining their pockets with OUR TAX DOLLARS!!! I am so sick of this crap I could just SCREAM and there is not ONE DAMNED thing you can do about it!!!
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