"Fascinating."
Posted on 03/21/2017 8:09:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
State Waste: The Golden State's vaunted bullet train project, planned to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, may be in its financial death throes. If so, it's probably the best fiscal news for the Golden State in years.
To say that Gov. Jerry Brown's pet project, the so-called high-speed train, is troubled would be an understatement. From the very beginning, it has been a testament to political hubris, fiscal irresponsibility, outright lies and abysmal planning.
The bullet train idea was floated on a blustery gust of political promises in 2008, when proponents put the high-speed rail to the state's voters in the form of a $10 billion bond issue to pay for its initial costs.
With hard-hit voters then suffering from the worst of the financial crisis, they fell for pledges of high-paying jobs and an ultrafast, low-cost train that would speed passengers from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles in a mere two hours and 40 minutes.
The proposal passed. But as the scale of deception behind the project has become known, it has been hit by a series of legal and environmental challenges. Even so, California has already committed to spending more than the $10 billion bond amount, and taxpayers are on the hook. It's a runaway train.
Worse, since the bond issue passed in 2008, cost estimates have only soared. Initially budgeted at $32 billion, the price tag is now put at twice that: $68 billion or more. Even the initial stretch of track, which lies on the flattest, easiest-to-build part of the entire total 700-mile route, has seen its cost soar 50%, from $6.4 billion to $10 billion.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Two derailments in over fifty years of continuous operations. That’s not a bad safety record.
Who "introduced" it?
Another thing nobody ever considers is making the modifications and/or upgrades to standard freight lines to be able to throw some passenger cars on them for standby rides. You’d have to be pretty hard on the on-off scheduling, but it seems there’s a buck and some easy transport to be made there as long as the regulators and lawyers aren’t allowed to finger into it...
CA doesn't exist?
I wish!
4: )
California government is reaching out everywhere to grub money. We own a small office building in Northern California that has an elevator. When we purchased the building 17 years ago the State Inspection fee was $110 per year, and the inspector actually showed up once a year to do the physical inspection. Now that fee has been raised within the past three or four years to $220. Initially, what we saw was that the annual physical inspection was slipping by several months. The last inspection that actually took place had slipped out to 18 months. This past inspection wasn’t done at all. We simply received a letter demanding that we do several things regarding maintenance without benefit of the actual visit by the inspector. And the letter we received mandated that we have our elevator repair service “do the work” and send a letter to the State attesting to the fact that the “work” had been done within 60 days or we would be assessed a $750 penalty. The “maintenance items” were “removal of the “debris” from on top of the car and vacuuming the walls of the “hoistway.” In point of fact, neither of these conditions actually existed as I used a vacuum in the areas in question and sent the photos to repair service. They then simply sent the letter and we avoided an unneeded service call. This is just one small example if the perfidy of our state government.
RE: You seem to want me to read things. That’s okay. I take your original comments, content and intent into account and just don’t feel the need. You should go find somebody else to help you read things into Trump’s “plans” that haven’t even gotten off the mark yet
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While I do believe that there are fake news out there... I do not believe that ALL news sources are going to create fictional accounts of what Trump wants to do. If the news tells us and most importantly QUOTE him as wanting to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure, I think it is safe to say that that’s what he wants.
We might want to believe it ain’t so, but it staggers the mind to think that we must reject all news sources from both right and left leaning camps in order to indulge in what we want to believe about a person.
As for your not caring what I think.... if it were so, why bother to respond?
I wonder what you said?
The 2008 ballot proposition was specific on speed and cost.
What Brown is delivering is nowhere near either.
The courts won’t intervene.
Supporting governing against the will of the people.
The 2008 ballot proposition was specific on speed and cost.
What Brown is delivering is nowhere near either.
The courts won’t intervene.
Supporting governing against the will of the people.
The “bullet train” was nothing more than a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the elite. It never was or is suppose to be built.
The Democrats control Sacramento.
The Democrats pretty much own the media.
This means there will be no real investigation over any of this.
California is a clear example of power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The California politicians are idiots.
The California voters are idiots.
California is doomed.
Why would anybody want to in the first place?...............
Trump needs to cut any Federal funding from this boondoggle.
You didn’t even comment on your OWN opening OP.
Who could NOT see this coming from 100 miles away? Just like ObamaCare, only an idiot would think that the costs would over run even the worst case estimates... sheesh.
The train would just be full of homeless. All the San Fran bums would get one way tickets to LA. All the LA bums would get one way tickets to San Fran.
"Fascinating."
But they'll be crying to the Federal government and stupid voters over the dams, bridges, highways, and electrical grid, that they let collapse in order to pay for this stupid idea, not the stupid project that swallowed all the money.
That’s a good idea. I think there are a number of good ideas that would kill this thing.
There’s no money for it. If the idea is good, seek investors.
Let the private sector handle this swell idea if it’s that swell.
All cultures are equal, even Chicongo.
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