How Sacramento operates. I may be giving those creeps too much credit. They probably don't actually care what this costs; it's just about continuing the boondoggle for their union cronies.
Posted on 03/07/2023 2:38:51 PM PST by artichokegrower
The latest report from the California High-Speed Rail Authority projects costs for the initial segment at $35 billion, which exceeds secured funding by $10 billion. Other segments of the system are likely to have their projected costs increase, too. The state hopes it will get more federal aid.
(Excerpt) Read more at calmatters.org ...
That's $20,467,836.25 per mile to go from Fresno to Bakersfield
That’s what corrupt WOKE-ism, DEI and ESG will do to you.
It will never carry a single passenger.
Pretty soon they’ll be competing with the reparations budget
It will be the world’s most expensive rail-to-trail conversion, having never conducted a single passenger train
Ten years from now, the entire fly-over country taxpayers will have been soaked for this boondoggle.
The initial phase is $10 billion underfunded.
I don’t see that as a problem. Just raise taxes on people in the state and/or charge riders more. Tax tourists more too.
Pay and pay and be proud.
“It will never carry a single passenger.”
What matters is that the quota for minority contractors is met.
“The issue is never the issue. The revolution is the issue.”
This boondoggle has been in the works for decades with billions already flushed and nothing accomplished. By the time they complete the train that goes from horsetown to orchardville, people will have personal drones to take the trip.
How dare they—Thats 100 Billion that Ukraine needs!
Just $100 billion?
Heck, that’s peanuts when the federal government can just declare another emergency and bail them out with deficit funding that doesn’t have to be paid back.
As I understand it, they can almost get up to speed before
cutting back...
I don’t think it’s operational though.
I’ve told folks, not to count this one out yet. Newsom
did come out and say it was done, but he caught a fair
amount of heat over it, and backtracked.
I do note the new Las Vegas ride from the LA area is now
touted to only cost around $13 billion. The one that is
now over $100 billion in the red started out at around
$10 billion when first voted on.
A freeway (I99) already connects the California vacation hotspots of Merced and Bakersfield, and the distance is a whopping 157 miles.
From an internet source: The quickest way to get from Bakersfield to Merced is to drive which costs $29 - $45 and takes 2h 42m.
Could the (cough, cough) high speed rail make up its billions of debt on this line?
First, trains are typically late. That's because they are trains, which generally run late.
Second, if someone in Merced wanted to get to Bakersfield really fast, the high speed rail involves a few more considerations. Parking, ticketing and security and baggage, all major time takers.
Then, when in Bakersfield, unless someone had business at the rail station, there's car rental or taxi fare (and more waiting and more cost.)
Cost? Ha ha ha. It would need to be subsidized by the state, and still would be many multiples of the $29-45 estimated range for car travel; and, if 2 or more traveled by the same car, the costs would be divided accordingly. Not so for train tickets.
As a once and former Citizen of Cali, with lots of liberal friends and fam and acquaintances, I've never once heard any of them say they actually want to ride on the bullet train.
Not one.
Slower, less reliable, more expensive. The California High-speed Rail is Democrat duplicity and deceit on parade.
Here's a question...
Who are the contractors who made $$$?
How Sacramento operates. I may be giving those creeps too much credit. They probably don't actually care what this costs; it's just about continuing the boondoggle for their union cronies.
To be fair it is more like Merced/Chowchilla/Madera to Bakersfield. (Changes yearly)...current business plan is Merced to Bako for the “initial operating segment”. ;-) 320% over budget and not one inch of track laid yet!
“Don’t know. Got to do with where choo-choo go”
Two new regional airports in the East Bay, two more new ones in the Inland Empire, and a whole lot of Boeing and Airbus hardware can be had for far less this rail scam.
“I do note the new Las Vegas ride from the LA area is now
touted to only cost around $13 billion”
That project might have actually made sense before they legalized gambling in CA.
Now it is just another laughable boondoggle.
This is by far the easiest section to build. Flat, cheap, sparsely populated agricultural land with excellent access. Other section to SF and LA will have to traverse hills, mountains and some of the most valuable real estate in the country. If it is ever completed, it will exceed $250B and be a financial albatross around CA’s neck for generations. It will cost an order of magnitude more to operate than it will take in from ticket sales. CA will have to create a new tax to pay for it, probably a mileage tax added to your car registration. And of course, they will do their best to force the rest of the country to pay for it.
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