Posted on 01/14/2017 6:33:36 AM PST by Olog-hai
California’s bullet train could cost taxpayers 50% more than estimated — as much as $3.6 billion more. And that’s just for the first 118 miles through the Central Valley, which was supposed to be the easiest part of the route between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
A confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis, obtained by The Times, projects that building bridges, viaducts, trenches and track from Merced to Shafter, just north of Bakersfield, could cost $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared with the original budget of $6.4 billion.
The federal document outlines far-reaching management problems: significant delays in environmental planning, lags in processing invoices for federal grants and continuing failures to acquire needed property.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority originally anticipated completing the Central Valley track by this year, but the federal risk analysis estimates that that won’t happen until 2024, placing the project seven years behind schedule. …
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Jumps from $41 million per mile to $65 million. And this was most likely the cheapest segment.
California is broke.
The CalPERS cow has mastitis.
I doubt they’re going to get anything extra from the fed on this (if they get anything) once Trump takes office.
Whod’a thought?
Where is the betting pool on which year that CA will go bankrupt?
And, as a subplot, will bankruptcy come before or after the big one?
Quelle surprise! Who could possibly have seen this coming?
States cannot use bankruptcy laws.
They always have money and land to confiscate, as needed, so they are protected, despite not having bankruptcy as an option.
The “bullet train” is a wealth distribution scheme from the middle class to the ruling class. Of course it will have cost overruns, that is the whole point.
If the politicians in Sacramento really wanted to help the citizens they would build more dams and reservoirs.
After years of crying drought, the first heavy rains and they begin emptying the reservoirs causing flooding down streams. As soon as the rain stops they will begin crying drought again and pointing to the empty reservoirs as proof.
California is a one party state, and this is the madness you get with a one party state.
Is this because building passenger rail needs to be this expensive? Or is it because corruption and regulation is so out-of-control in CA that it’s inevitable that the cost of any project spins out of control?
Not only is my beeber stuned, but my flabber is gasted and my over is whelmed.
ROTFLMAO! Couldn’t happen to a better state. My apologies or condolences to CA freepers. It truly is a beautiful state but it is currently occupied territory, LOL!
I foresee some railroad tracks sitting in the middle of the California central valley.... and they are a dead end on both end. And never have trains on the rails.
Absolutely! I have long said the problem in CA is not lack of water but it is: failure to plan for a lack of water.
From another item not too many items below, there seems to be a suggestion of what Donald Trump is likely to do.
He’d probably say look into trying to salvage what they can for slow transit, or else junk the boondoggle.
How many desalination plants and water storage facilities could have been built for the cost of California’s bullet train?
As far as corruption and regulation, it’s not only CA, but the FRA on top of that. The feds have worked to make all forms of rail transportation, but especially passenger, too expensive for the private sector to run for many decades; they want a return to Woodrow Wilson’s USRA eventually (which is why there are now only five Class 1 freight railroads and absolutely no private passenger operations).
The Federal Railroad Administration receives taxpayer money to survive, why is a report that is funded by taxpayer money and is reporting on the use of taxpayer money for a failed project confidential?
....could cost $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared with the original budget of $6.4 billion.
Fake news hailing the benefits of this high speed rail line propped up the project with a fake budget.....
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