Wind power is at least a millennium old.
Neither are the way of the future.
“Gov. Jerry Brown of California is riding into an election year on a wave of popularity and an upturn in the state’s fortunes.”
California is doing great now?
Another Democrat chief executive, driving his administration and his constituents into a “disaster.”
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One way flights between SFO and LAX every hour for $59 on a Delta. 1 hr and 27 min.
How can you possibly beat that? How cheap does the 5 hour train ride to Victorville (out in the middle of nowhere) have to be to make financial sense for a passenger?
Jerry Brown: Making everything a disaster in California since 1970.
Earth to Jerry”MoonBeam”Brown:”This Ain’t Europe”!!!!!!!!!!!
It is always good to know that good old jesuit Jer still promotes his socialist vision in the face of facts that would deter a sane and rational man
First of all, it’s not high speed. Second, it goes from nowhere to nowhere. How can this be bad?
Latest cost estimate I've seen is nearly $100 billion. (By comparison, the entire annual Cali budget is just over $200 billion).
The first segment? Joining the metropolises of Madera (nowhere) and Bakersfield (nowheresville). Driving time between the two towns is less than 2 hours. Even if a train took less than 45 minutes (unlikely), the total trip would be about 2 hours, counting all the parking, ticketing, terminal stuff, etc.
Who wants to ride the Bullet Train? Nobody. I've lived here in the Golden State for decades, I know zillions of liberals, and nobody has ever said to me that they would willingly ride that thing. Nobody!
The train promises to go from S.F. to L.A. in less than 3 hours, is this possible? Nupe. Even if it didn't stop at the 6 or so stops, one seriously suspects that it's not going average anywhere near 200 mph (and that's on a good day. Trains are always late, always).
The Dems think that at least there will be a jobs benefit, which we conservatives know to be nonsense. The opportunity cost of the loss of 100B will cost more jobs (and cause more business emigration) than any temp union jobs to build the thing (which will never be completed, anyway.)
I could go on...
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High speed rail works in Europe and Japan for two reasons: cities are closer in distance, driving cars is very expensive and since the government subsidizes rail fares, its cheaper than flying by plane.
All the opposite is true here: cities are far apart, driving a car is inexpensive even long distance and rail fares will never be competitive with air fares, period.
And its just not suited for California. Light rail does work in the LA metro area but that’s because its very densely populated. That’s not true of the rural hinterland between LA and SF.
Jerry Brown is chasing after the Taj Mahal of trains. Its the ultimate White Elephant. California could more sensibly spend its scarce transportation dollars than on a political prestige project to nowhere. And its one that will never get built.
Give Erika Johnsen the Captain Obvious Award for her brilliant work.
Well, one way or another, I’m sure Pelosi’s hubby will still make a fortune.
“The ruling in November by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento blocked the state from using $8.6 billion in bond money to finance the first part of the train line, saying officials had failed to explain where they would find the remaining funds. That, in turn, jeopardized California’s access to more than $3 billion in federal matching funds, which are contingent on a state contribution. …”
the entire funding model is this: Starting with the completed project, work backwards to set a series of exponentially decreasing “intermediate” goals, get promises that each time you achieve one goal you get money for the next. Then, by hook or by crook scrape up sufficient money to get MOST of the way to the first, smallest, goal — close enough so you can say “Look, if we just throw some more money at it, we’ll get funding for the next (larger) stage, with all the jobs that will bring. Then repeat.
In other words, a cascade of “too big to fail” crises, where at each stage you convince the taxpayer that they’ve poured in so much money on that stage that going forward to the next stage makes more sense than going back.
It's actually written by a disaffected but unrepentant leftist.
Didn’t we see this movie? As I recall, Governor Lamar stands to lose a whole bunch of real estate profit if the train tracks don’t run through Rock Ridge...........
Nobody out here in the North Bay wants that choo choo, or thinks we need it. The only group happy about this money pit being planned would be the unions and the congressmen. Opposition to this gilded pipe dream continues to grow stronger and louder. No no NO!
The Democrats in Wisconsin are still angry that Scott Walker killed the (sort of) high speed rail project between Milwaukee and Madison. Walker turned down a boatload of (free) federal money. They don’t like and won’t read articles like this.
Choo, choo ping.