Posted on 12/18/2011 10:43:03 AM PST by Starman417
Obama's "moon project" aka high-speed rail is moving along. Costs are spiraling:
Faster than a speeding bullet train, the cost of the state’s massive high-speed rail project has zoomed to nearly $100 billion — triple the estimate given to voters and more than enough to run the entire state government for a year.
Planned completion times are increasing:
bullet trains won’t be up and running until at least 2033, much later than the original estimate of 2020, although that depends on the state finding the remaining 90 percent of the funds needed to complete the plan.
And the voters are increasingly beginning to see the light:
Four weeks after the news that the cost of California’s high-speed rail project has tripled since voters approved it, the struggling project is taking another hit: waning public support.A new Field Poll shows that 64 percent of California voters would like a ballot measure giving them a chance to reconsider their 2008 decision to approve $9 billion in state bonds for the project.
Fifty-nine percent said they would reject the $98.5 billion project if it were put before them again. In 2008, 52.6 percent of voters approved plans for the rail line to connect San Francisco and Sacramento with Los Angeles.
So what should our government do? Should they be fiscally intelligent and kill the stupid thing?
Obama?
The Obama administration vowed Thursday at a House committee meeting in Washington that it would not back down from its support of California’s bullet train project despite attacks from critics who alleged it is tainted by political corruption.“We are not going to flinch on that support,” said Joseph Szabo, chief of the Federal Railroad Administration.
Szabo said that his agency had committed itself to provide $3.3 billion for a construction start next year in the Central Valley and that federal law prohibits any change of mind about where to begin building the first segment of the state’s high-speed rail system.
“The worst thing we could do is make obligations to folks and start to renege on our word,” Szabo told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
If the cost has increased three fold before one shovel has hit the ground...what do you think it will end up costing in 20 years when it will supposedly be complete?
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Let me guess, they are going to fast track it through!
They should all be ridden out of town on it...
And the GOP will handle it badly, and Obama will handle it smoothly, and his second term will begin in January 2013.
And early in his second term, he will declare his faith in Islam.
These are my three predictions.
insanity is the correct word
I guess little Barry never got the train set he wanted for Christmas.
This needs to get on the ballot in CA so the voters can quash it.
The faster republicans can HELP the democrats move California along to bankrupcy the faster California can start/begin recovery..
Holding californias bankrupcy back is the crime.. almost being an enabler..
California obviously needs to hit the gutter first..
If the Obamanoids win the election Mexifornia will get bailed out..
Based on highly inflated passenger loads and already rising costs, the project is already bankrupt. $800 mill spent so far on planning and publicity. Any one who has driven several times up the I-5 or Hwy 99 could design the route in 30 minutes.
Why have they hired 8 PR firms over 20 years? It’s not workable and they sold it enough to pass the bond at the last election. The feds, who are the only ones in the US more bankrupt than the state of Cal keep the project alive with tax money from the over 49 suckers, er states.
Were I governor, I would go to Vegas and meet with Steve Wynn, other casino owners, and the governor of Nevada. I would invite them to build a line from Vegas to Ontario and Burbank with the two lines going to Barstow and forming one line north to Vegas. The road from southern California to Vegas is the real place that has a passenger load. And you don’t need a car when you’re in Vegas. NO PUBLIC FUNDS, but expedited permits and rights of way etc.
Then if someone wants to do Barstow to SF or Barstow east, they would get the same government assistance, but no funds.
No matter how hard you try Barry, this ain’t Europe.
It was on the last ballot and “we” passed it. But the project is already outside the guidelines for continuing.
Moslems do not celebrate Christmas.
The road from southern California to Vegas is the real place that has a passenger load.”
Allow tickets to be purchased with food stamps...
Only if a democrat is running things.
ping for later
Belly up, lights out, no paychecks, water is off and sewer backing up... Kind of "in the gutter."
No bailout from little bammy and his crew via u.S. taxpayer, no "to big to fail," no "for the common good," no "for the children" bs, just let it sink in it's own s**t.
It is the ONLY way the insanity will be exposed.
.
Progressives are actually notoriously regressive when it comes to human development. They always demand that people accept a lower and less efficient existence. So why the fascination with high-speed. Why not normal speed, spend your time just sitting, rail?
They love the concept of other time wasting mass transit systems such as city busing, so why the concern for a less fuel efficient, more environmentally impacting rail system?
Dollars to donuts that once they have people stuck on their rail system, they will be reducing the speeds.
The nice thing about Metropolitan Transportation Districts is that all the money spent on them goes directly into the pockets of Eric Holder’s people.
And so many reasons not to build it.
1. expense
2. low utilization
3. No profitability
4. destruction of valuable farm land
5. too many stops planned
6. More energy used with high speed rail that with efficient aircraft
7. Buying expensive electrical power outside the state on a outdated and stained power grid
8. relocation of established businesses
9. adding to the trade deficit by buying a train made in China
10. I haven't heard how they are planning to get the train out of the valley over grapevine (intracostal mountain range)and into the LA basin.
It truly is a boondoggle.
Never give the government your permission to do anything because they will ALWAYS do more than you wanted and take longer to do it.
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