Posted on 01/13/2014 8:46:11 PM PST by dennisw
California’s ludicrously ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco has been besieged with all kinds of problems from almost the moment of its official conception, but let that not restrain California Democrats from doubling down on what they seem to view as their iliadic quest to make high-speed rail happen.
Back in August, a judge declared that the project had already violated the 2008 ballot initiative that first authorized the $10 billion in bonds for the 500-mile train, because the state didn't actually having funding sources on the books for the $31 billion required to build even just the 290-mile “initial segment” — not to mention that the oh-so-green state had flouted the necessary environmental clearances. Governor Jerry Brown deemed the judge’s ruling a mere “setback,” ho hum, but the project has since encountered still more judicial “setbacks”
Gov. Jerry Brown of California is riding into an election year on a wave of popularity and an upturn in the state’s fortunes. But a project that has become a personal crusade for him over the past two years — a 520-mile high-speed train line from Los Angeles to San Francisco — is in trouble, reeling from a court ruling that undermined its financing, and from slipping public support and opponents’ rising calls to shut it down. …
“It’s time for the governor to pull up the tracks,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, who is the majority whip in the House. “Everything he has said has not come to fruition. It’s time to scratch the project.” …
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,
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Nothing but a monstrous land-grab by eminent domain under the guise of a boondoggle public works project funded by the hapless slaves ... err...taxpayers.
You're no good...
A very good looking couple.....35 years ago (Jerry and Linda)
I thought they were each other’s beards ?
The Obama Administration tried to strongarm Florida’s governor Rick Scott into building a high-speed rail project in this state a few years ago, to be funded by a state tax (which Florida doesn’t have). Fortunately, Scott told him to take a hike. Why would anybody want to take a train from Tampa to Orlando when you can drive there, on your own time and your own schedule? You’d have to drive to the train station, park your car somewhere, and then rent another car when you get to your destination. And building the rail system would provide a few jobs for a little while, and then we’d be stuck paying for it forever while very few people use it. I am so glad I don’t live in California.
Linda claims in her new book that they had career difference issues.
Once we get self driving cars, which are very close to being on the roads, the whole public transportation model falls apart. The biggest benefit of public transport is that you don't have to drive yourself, which is sometimes good, but often does not overcome the negatives of having several modes of transport to get to a destimation. But when we have self driving cars, we can go point to point, and still not have to drive ourselves. Plus, all the negatives of public transport are avoided.
If the incompetent (and sometimes malicious) government bureaucracy didn’t always get in our way, we’d have flying cars by now.
Choo choo to nowhere...
The word, “iliadic” is not in my dictionary.
Compare this disaster with the John Galt Line.
ZipCars eventually win.
“Compare this disaster with the John Galt Line.”
Both fiction?
.
Ah, yes. The "High Speed Rail."
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...
Jerry Brown is Willie Green’s deity.
The California “High-Speed Rail” is “our answer”” to Boston’s “big Dig.” We need to put an initiative on the ballot this year to see if our citizens still think this is a good idea. I am betting it would not pass.
“I thought they were each other’s beards ?”
Well you ought to Google Jerry’s wife and have a look. I am betting that the music that was played at their wedding was “Who’s Got the Ding Dong!”
Not that far from Pittsburgh to Kalifornia. Willie Green is now working as Jerry Brown’s hi-speed big-money rail adviser.
Actually, more to the point, Jerry always struck me as oddly asexual (as so many creepy beta males obsessed with leftist politics seem to be these days... perhaps just undeclared poofs).
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