You’ll Never Guess What CA’s Bullet Train Will Cost — Or When It Will Finish

Hotair ^ | 03/10/2018 | Ed Morrissey

[bert]

Electric cars riding with contact to a third rail at 100 mph will destroy the bullet train concept

[libstripper]

I decided to be a truly evil man early this afternoon and went to Wiki to see how long it took to build the Transcontinental Railroad. It took six years, from 1863 to 1869, two of them during the Civil War and all of it without modern technology. The late Ayn Rand would have loved to report on this monstrosity.

[Grampa Dave]

First they have to build safe tracks.

Then they have to buy the 100 mph trains.

Then if they don’t crash and burn, they might get a few riders.

[Robert357]

First, Projects like this are suppose to be able to produce sufficient fair revenue to pay a significant portion of their costs. At $77+billion and growing it is becoming laughable that fairs will support any but a tiny portion of the debt.

Second, the want this ultra high speed train to go through earthquake fault line country. Whether it is tunnels, elevated rail sections (bridges) or rails on earth, a train traveling at extreme speed must have very precise rail alignment or disaster will happen and people will die. That means big parts of the lines rails will either need be super-engineered (expensive) or actively monitored on a continuous basis (expensive short and long term).

Third, given California’s unfunded public pension debt, can the people afford this and all of the other free spending boondoggles Sacramento desires? Probably not without drive a significant number of businesses and wealthy folks out.

Finally, one needs to understand why this project must be stopped soon and while it will not be easily stopped. Organizations that have been spending money on implementing this will want to keep going rather than fire people and loose their jobs. Politicians have to keep going, otherwise they will have to admit to pouring billions into a failure, which will ruin their political careers.

The only way out for the politicians of California is for Trump to kill the project, maybe because it will violate some federal regulation, at which point the California politicians can blame the evil Trump and quietly shut off any further state funding. Without an outside force to blame this project will continue to waste billions and bankrupt the State.

[freedumb2003]

The transcontinental railroad, 1,912 miles from Omaha to Oakland, was built using hand labor and gunpowder, and took six years to complete.

Maybe this project doesn't have the right work music:

[Daniel Ramsey]

I doubt it will be finished, more than likely it will be abandoned in place.

[Haddit]

This is what Californians voted for.
When they couldn’t get private investors, the courts told us we had to pay for it.
This just shows us how those 700 unelected judges F everything up.
Now they are partially paying for it with our Cap and Trade taxes.
Cap and Trade went after oil refineries so that we wouldn’t notice it’s a gas tax.
They are not sticking to existing rail corridors. They are taking property by imminent domain.
They want to bore a 36 mile tunnel through the mountains north of Los Angeles.
It was sold to us as bringing jobs to America. They didn’t tell us that 12 percent was set aside
to non-white men.
They didn’t tell us the trains would be made in foreign countries and assembled here.
They didn’t tell us that some of the major contractors would be foreigners.
That tunnel will be just a few miles from the famous Vasquez Rocks seen in so many western
movies and an episode of The Big Bang Theory, where the rocks tilt upwards due to being on
a fault line.

http://vigarchive.sos.ca.gov/2008/general/title-sum/prop1a-title-sum.htm
SAFE, RELIABLE HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAIN BOND ACT.

OFFICIAL TITLE AND SUMMARY

SAFE, RELIABLE HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAIN BOND ACT.

• Provides long-distance commuters with a safe, convenient, affordable, and reliable alternative to driving and high gas prices.
• Reduces traffic congestion on the state’s highways and at the state’s airports.
• Reduces California’s dependence on foreign oil.
• Reduces air pollution and global warming greenhouse gases.
• Establishes a clean, efficient 220 MPH transportation system.
• Improves existing passenger rail lines serving the state’s major population centers.
• Provides for California’s growing population.
• Provides for a bond issue of $9.95 billion to establish high-speed train service linking Southern California counties, the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Provides that at least 90% of these bond funds shall be spent for specific construction projects, with private and public matching funds required, including, but not limited to, federal funds, funds from revenue bonds, and local funds.
• Requires that use of all bond funds is subject to independent audits.
• Appropriates money from the General Fund to pay bond principal and interest.

Summary of Legislative Analyst’s Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact:

• State costs of about $19.4 billion, assuming 30 years to pay off both principal ($9.95 billion) and interest ($9.5 billion) costs of the bonds. Payments of about $647 million per year.
• When constructed, additional unknown costs, probably in excess of $1 billion a year, to operate and maintain a high-speed train system. The costs would be at least partially, and potentially fully, offset by passenger fare revenues, depending on ridership.

[Truthoverpower]

This is the biggest scam probably ever
It will NEVER be built and yet BILLIONS are going to dem cronies
Demoncraps love dem choo choo s

[zeestephen]

We have a similar boondoggle here in Seattle - “Light Rail” - which has ballooned in cost to $10 billion.

We already had a light rail downtown-to-airport connection which was very expensive, but, that was possibly worthwhile, since traffic congestion into and out of the airport can be a nightmare.

We also have a federally subsidized traditional commuter rail connection between downtown and Everett, WA, which is about 30 miles north on Puget Sound. A weekend one way ticket is just $2.75. I don’t know the price of a work day ticket, but when that route started about 10 years ago, the actual cost per passenger was $225 one way!

Anyway, our now-under-construction new light rail line pretty much parallels I-5 through Seattle (on the west side) and loops around to parallel I-405 through the east side suburbs.

The construction-obstruction for this new rail system is unbelievable.

When it’s completed, about two years from now, our $10 billion “investment” is expected to reduce maximum rush hour traffic by 6,000 cars!

That’s like $1.6 million per car!

[GOPJ]

When the original project got approved with a $33.6 billion price tag, ticket prices were supposed to be pegged at 50% of airline prices, or about $55. The very next year, CHSRA raised its estimate to 83% of airline prices...

These kind of 'cost overruns' are typical in hellholes... in a few years we'll 'discover' massive graft by 'elites'... It's never just 'mistakes' or lies...

[Yaelle]

Smart people knew this before it went up for the first referendum vote.

This state has gone to insane levels of poop.

[Haddit]

The distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco is 382 miles. 19 gallons of gas at 20 miles to the gallon. My cheapest gas is $3.15 per gallon in Los Angeles. That is $59.85. $30 for two people and $15 for four people.
This train is for business men that are afraid to fly and Jerry Brown.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Have they managed to lay any rail yet?

[super7man]

Can you imagine how nice our airports would be if they spent that money there? With proper planning, I can fly from 3 convenient Bay Area airports to 4 convenient LA airports for $50 in one hour.

Unless, I can take my car on the train and get there in 3 hours for $50, it is a no-go.

Some will point out that you don’t have to go through security to ride the train. Who you kidding? There will be security.

Plus, we would then have 600 miles of track just ready for terrorist sabotage. It would have to be protected too.

[HighSierra5]

Getting through the mountains is something that ain’t gonna happen. You know they invented a flying machine that gets you from L.A. to San Francisco in 50 minutes. Amazing!

[Vince Ferrer]

I guess we’ll have to whip up a number six on them.

[Robert A Cook PE]

If it's ever even finished, within five years it'll settle down to speeds the Twentieth Century Limited was making back in the nineteen forties, if that.

Until EACH of the next 60 earthquakes requires the ultra-close-aligned strings of high-speed spaghetti (er, railroad tracks) get twisted and the tunnels damaged.

But we soooooooooooo desperately need the CO2 to be limited by speeding (empty) trains filled with empty seats between SFran and LA! (Instead of by the (less expensive) and faster and more flexible airplanes.)

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

Front page of our newspaper today stated the cost and expected end date, BELIEVE ME by 2033 the DAMNED COST of this IDIOTIC project wil have quadrupled!!!! Governor Moonbeam will also be DEAD by then leaving behind the BIG DIG of CA.!!!! God I HATE these USELESS politicians, also by 2033 CA. will have pushed ALL business out of the state!!! A ticket on this USELESS bullet train will cost so much NO ONE will be able to afford to ride the DAMNED THING!!!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Grand Rapids Michigan spent 40 billion to build a "light rail on wheels".

The end result is that it took out two lanes of traffic on the north-south main artery, making your drive even worse. It has never turned a profit or made half what it costs to run it.

It was suppose to promote more business down town. It did not.

They poured 40 billion down a rat hole and sending a million and a half after it every year.

Since it was such a great success they have decided to do another one that will pour 63 billion down a rat hole.

And people ask why we moved.

[Jacquerie]

For comparison, Florida’s 2018 state budget is also $77 billion.