$68-billion California bullet train project likely to overshoot budget and deadline targets

LA Times ^ | 10-24-2015 | Ralph Vartabedian

[BAW]

I'm shocked. Shocked!

[17th Miss Regt]

It will overrun costs by a factor of five, minimum.

[ctdonath2]

Of course there will be overruns.
A mere 1% overrun is $680,000,000 ... that’s quite the incentive to go over a little, many times.

[ponygirl]

The only bullet a California pol gets morning wood over.

[ealgeone]

What could go wrong?

[proxy_user]

Derogatory comments at site.

[DuncanWaring]

As I recall, the final cost of Boston’s “Big Dig” was about 10 times what it was originally estimated - $20 billion vs. $2 billion.

Is there any reason to think California’s bullet-train will be any different (aside from the fact that CA doesn’t have a chance-in-hell of coming up with a half-trillion dollars)?

[Cymbaline]

In other news, water is wet.

[Cyman]

With more particulate pollution from one project than all others combined.

[Jim Robinson]

Oooooh. Can’t wait to get to beautiful downtown Burbank.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Of course it is. It’s only purpose is to shuttle money from the taxpayers to multinational corporations and labor unions.

[ronnie raygun]

Because its a scam like the rest

[Osage Orange]

How can they even use the term, bullet?

I think mullet train would suffice...

The whole boondoggle smells....like fish.

[Secret Agent Man]

Every sane persn knows this is a boondoggle makework fustercluck.

[hal ogen]

Just who are the morons pushing this? Insane/LIBs, I guess. It is easy to waste OPM (other peoples’s money). Crooks...idiots.

[Kickass Conservative]

Welcome to CA, we’re just swimming in Money, no really. LOL

[twister881]

Instead of building more reservoirs, pumping stations, water pipelines, desalination plants, prisons, roads, etc., the Stalinists in Sacramento intend to spend 100s of billions on a worthless train that runs between the high desert and Las Vegas. Doesn’t go anywhere near Los Angeles. Bribes, kickbacks, payoffs, and all manner of criminal acts are at play.

[moehoward]

Same Einsteins that pushed for a tunnel along Seattle's water front rather that surface road. Work done out in the open makes it sooo much harder to hide the unexpected costs.

[Lisbon1940]

We used to do big things like Hoover Dam. The world’s biggest tunneling project sounds pretty cool. I don’t care about the train, but I like the tunnel.

[Lisbon1940]

This train will go SF to LA. Not Victorville.