Posted on 01/14/2017 4:56:40 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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.
The report, the most critical official assessment of the project to surface so far, is labeled a “confidential-draft deliberative document for internal use only” and was presented by senior Federal Railroad Administration executives to California rail authority board Chairman Dan Richard and Chief Executive Jeff Morales on Dec. 1 in Washington.
This analysis puts the state on notice that it could face bigger cost overruns than anticipated and much longer delays than have been made public, a troubling critique by an agency that has been a stalwart supporter and longtime financier of the nation’s largest infrastructure project.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Watch Sheldon Cooper’s affection for trains on TV Sitcom Big Bang Theory. He is typical of the left that is in love with trains.
Many have fond memories of Thomas The Tank Engine and of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. As with Sheldon Cooper, they have not made the personality transition from child to adult.
I claim The Big Bang Theory paved the way for Trump by making political correctness and California intellectuals look so incompetent to function in real life.
Trains are a way for politicians to show concern for the land while funneling billions of dollars to cronies and union workers.
A government project over budget, late, and the final result of no use to anyone except the grossly overpaid government bureaucrats and contractors swilling from the taxpayer trough.
And commander gov. moonbeam screamed that they were going to launch their on satellites?
Meanwhile, a vast amount of water from the recent precipitation in the state, enough to supply the state for several years, runs wasted out to the Pacific Ocean.
And when the pension funds dry up, tell them to ride the train.
If only there were some way to quickly travel between SF and LA, this bullet train thing wouldn’t be needed. I wonder why nobody has ever invented something that could actually fly between them. :=)
Has a single “spike” golden or otherwise been struck yet? I do not think any construction at all has even happened yet (though I could be wrong), I wonder what the total quantity of money that has been spent (for everything done so far) on this project. I bet that number is unobtanium, and at least two orders of magnitude greater than any public figure, and furthermore at least 95% of the actual real number went 100% to graft
Ha, the guy on the right of the pic looks like he had a liquid lunch. As would I at that height!
Democrats continue whining about DJT wanting to take us back - even as they champion dated subsidized technologies like passenger trains and windmills.
Cancel this piece of crap President Trump.
That picture has always scared the heck out of me.
RE: That picture has always scared the heck out of me.
I know, but those were the times when men were men. They built the Empire State Building in 18 freaking months!! At the height of the great depression.
Those were the times when America possessed a CAN-DO spirit. Now, we can even build a subway station without talking about it to death, much less overrun the cost of a freaking bullet train ...
We are no longer the country we used to be.
As Chairman of some congressional committee, DiFi funneled gazillions of $$$$$ to herself and her husband. When someone finally said something, she ceased the chairmanship, but continues her evil ways. Creepozoids all.
I, for one, am shocked.
Golden Gate went up under budget and ahead of schedule with very little loss of life. There were lines of workers standing by daily in hopes of getting work. Different times. Different generational attitudes and work ethic. A lot less government interference, to, I'll bet.
“I think the real engineers and cost accounts figured the cost at least 100 billion”
indeed the official cost estimates had gone that high at one point, but they knew they couldn’t keep selling this white elephant at that cost, so they pretty much faked a bunch of things to bring the cost overruns down to something more reasonable looking, though actually entirely fake.
Everything after your first three words is redundant.
>> What is the deal the left in the US and trains?
Control.
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