Posted on 02/14/2019 11:35:52 AM PST by Publius
“The Central Valley segment is and always has been the foundation .for the whole vision of high-speed rail in California.”
I can find nothing that goes into the daily costs and expected ridership that will justify a high speed rail line from Merced to Bakersfield. It will at most, from all I’ve read, achieve maybe six trains a day each way. Six trains a day cannot pay for such an expensive line, when in very much more populated rail corridors, like New Jersey, local rail transit is a money losing operation.
What is HSR really about? Its about local boosterism (as having a “train stop” has ALWAYS been”, and it’s about the cromyism. lobbying and political corruption at the intsection of the “infrastructure” builders and the politicians. When they are all done, the contractors will have made their billions, the politicians will be out of office, and both classes will be retired leaving the public to complain to the next class of politicians about the bills.
High seep rail, low speed intelligence...
Except neither can afford fair price for farmlands.
Merced to Yosemite Valley is 2-1/2 hours on an Amtrak bus.
That's what liberal dems always say, while they know the new estimate of $77 billion is far short of what they know will cost over $100 billion. That $77 billion estimate covers some money already allocated to portions of the rail project, but the money was diverted to non-rail related projects. So that money must be replenished and will drive costs over $100 billion including inflation.
They can't even decide how to get the high-speed rail from Merced to San Francisco. One problem is how to get high-speed trains to share track with existing trains like CalTrain into San Francisco's TransBay Terminal. The train platform is an empty hole in the ground, blocks away from the existing CalTrain station; they diverted money away from building the train platform level into finishing the bus station and park levels. Now they are thinking of building a new tunnel from the TransBay Terminal to connect to rail several miles away because of the track sharing problem - the sharing problem will slow the high-speed trains to a crawl up the peninsula to downtown SF. These "high-speed" trains will never get passengers quickly from SF to anywhere.
From Merced to Bakersfield?!?
Millions can hardly wait to ride this train!!!!! Millions!!!
Bwah hah hah hah !!!!
With high-speed rail receiving new attention in Congress, and climate change moving rapidly to the center of political debates,
Beat me to it!
In a politically-plagued state like California, what good is a high-speed rail system? If they ran it to the nearest border, they might save money & serve a purpose at the same time.
In other words, what would Vito Corleone do?
.
Sorry, San Fran, not SBO.
“Except neither can afford fair price for farmlands.”
In California the initial French plan included an alignment on the west side of Interstate Five which is almost all state-owned land or else inexpensive dry scrub land.
Almost no farmland at all was to have been impacted by that proposal...of course that also meant that the Democrats wouldn’t be able to scheme their way into big bucks as the government bought up their land.
they bought 25% of the first 30 miles of 300+ miles necessary.
fail rail
Why go anyplace else anyway? Globalists have the same developers dropping cookie cutter chain strip centers and townhomes into every old neighborhood everywhere making everyplace bland and the same.
If you look at the map of the construction projects under way they are not quite to Merced or Bakersfield.
https://buildhsr.com/interactive_map/
I wonder if we’ll live long enough to see even a ceremonial run on the tracks.
Provided, of course, that they don’t run out of money before buying any, you know, track.
Prop. 1a specifically forbid subsidies for the HSR project:
“The planned passenger service by the authority in the corridor or usable segment thereof will not require a local, state, or federal operating subsidy.
and
“...the planned passenger train service to be provided by the authority, or pursuant to its authority, will not require operating subsidy”
https://vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov/2008/general/pdf-guide/suppl-complete-guide.pdf#prop1a
But the HSR board ignored several provisions of Prop. 1a since 2008....starting with a “blended system” on the S.F. peninsula which violated the “2 hour 40 minute” “high-speed” provision.
The Simpson’s were never the same without Phil Hartman!
Just five minutes from Bako to Merced Cross the sea by rail...
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