Posted on 10/27/2015 7:29:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
California's high-speed rail project will never make its current 2022 arrival time, according to the Los Angeles Times. Doesn't this strike anyone in charge of this costly boondoggle as ironic?
The Los Angeles Times does a commendable job of providing a reality check to the increasingly out-of-touch project. After reviewing project documents and talking to various experts, the paper concluded, "The deadline and budget targets will almost certainly be missed," and state officials have "underestimated the challenges ahead."
Officials still haven't settled on a route, they're behind schedule in acquiring land, getting permits and financing, and the project faces several lawsuits.
Boring on the 36 miles of planned tunnels isn't likely to get started until 2019, the Times notes, and by any reasonable estimate it will take another 7 to 14 years to complete. Even that's probably optimistic, since several parts will traverse known fault lines, vastly increasing the complexity of the effort.
It could easily take another four years after the tunnels are finished to install all the track and equipment. That means that completion of just Phase 1 of the bullet train will be closer to 2030.
Costs, which have already more than doubled, are likely to be higher than the current $68 billion estimate, the Times notes. Project-management firm Parsons Brinckerhoff said in a secret 2013 report, which the Times obtained, that it saw cost overruns "in almost every phase of the project." The state hasn't figured out how to finance the current costs.
Officials have already backpedaled on the lofty promises of travel time and ridership. To keep costs down to $68 billion, for example, the trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles won't be on high-speed rail at either end. And instead of 90 million a year, ridership is expected to be about 30 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Sixty eight BILLION? Like 4 and a half Big Digs? Man, that could fix a hell of a lot of roads and bridges.
I do heavy construction for a nationwide contractor and would love to snag a chunk of a job tha size, but that is an insane amount of money for a high speed rail line that really won’t provide much solution to whatever the perceived problem may be.
What ever happened to Willie Green?
In trips under 2 hours, its cheaper to take a car than the train.
Above that, you fly to your intended destination.
The bullet train is 19th technology in search of a problem that doesn’t exist.
Only liberals love expensive and complicated answers to life’s daily dilemmas.
I hate that we don’t think outside the box. This is the perfect opportunity to say to the people of California that 68 billion dollars will buy 2-300 desalination facilities and infrastructure which will cure global warming.
California can be the primary landing point for these plants which will prevent the oceans from rising while at the same time greening the environment which will scrub the harmful CO2 out of the air.
This can be the most progressive project ever. Think of the economy as hundreds of thousands of people in the farm, construction and energy industry work together to green California and neighboring states. The benefits alone would be tremendous.
And whoever says no to this is a lying racist hypocrite and fraud and should be exposed as such. The fun part of all of this is scientists paid for by the global warming agenda cannot say it won’t work because it hits all of their talking points as well as hits all of the numbers.
But, but, but you don’t understand. It’s the IDEA of “green” bullet trains that is important to “Progressives”, not whether they are actually built or anybody will actually want to ride one. Building and operating bullet trains are just gritty, unimportant details to be handled by those little people who know how to do things and who live in flyover states. You know, those people they make fun of all the time while they are busy supporting Barrack, Hillary, and Bernie.
Unlikely to ever be built? I say not a single mile of track will ever be laid down.
Feinstein’s retirement. The private contractor leading the project is her husband, Richard Blum. See http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/17/sen-feinsteins-husbands-company-to-bag-1-billion-for-government-deal/
Because of the condition of those who support it?
At least the Japanese train went somewhere. This one runs in the desert. It goes nowhere.
Oh come on, he was fun to play with when he got all huffy. Watching him twist and contort logic to fit his love of mass transit was why we still remember him after all this time.
I remember the time he claimed the Feds were authorized to get into the railroad business by the “post roads” clause of the Constitution.
Oops ... not just railroads, but passenger railroads ... derived from the constitutional authorization for the post office.
Does Blum get to rebuild it after the great earthquake takes it out of service?
Or, will Cali be broke by then?
Ha, sounds about right. Probably argued if you slap a stamp on your forehead you became chattel or something.
Only if some future conservative administration puts it down and stops the financial hemorrhage.
The account is still live. Weird, he wasn’t one to shy away from harsh criticism. I usually found the articles he posted to be interesting.
Thanks for the answer.
The estimate is a crock. It is already over $100 billion and climbing. That train to nowhere has violated every promise made in the proposition. The courts ruled against it because of this yet the democrats are spending our money for their cronies who will launder it back into the democrat party.
I got a ‘Reported Attack Site’ warning when going to this page.
It would be fun to achieve some useful goals while tweaking all those pinheads that prattle on about global warming and such. Using an enemies weapons against themselves is fantastic.
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