Posted on 12/17/2018 11:33:35 AM PST by george76
a report from the Auditor of the State of California on the High Speed Rail Project
...
To understand just how damning the HSR audit was, just consider the subtitle: “Flawed Decision Making and Poor Contract Management Have Contributed to Billions in Cost Overruns and Delays in the System’s Construction.” But like many government documents, the audit is couched in bureaucratic language that ordinary citizens may not understand. For that reason, below are the summary points as provided by the state auditor with accompanying translations.
Auditor: “Although the Authority has secured and identified funding of over $28 billion that it expects will be sufficient to complete initial segments, that funding will not be enough to connect those segments, or finish the rest of the system—estimated to cost over $77 billion.”
Translation: The Authority has succeeded in talking both the federal government and the state of California into providing billions of dollars on a failed project and yet still has no idea where the rest of the money will come from.
Auditor: “It has incrementally modified its plans for a fully dedicated high-speed rail system since 2012 and now intends to share—blend—existing transit infrastructure wherever feasible. Although blending is less costly, it subjects high-speed trains to lower speed limits and may require sharing time on the tracks with other rail operators.”
Translation: All those promises made to voters about getting from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours were never serious.
Auditor: “The fact that [the Authority] has now exhausted all feasible options to use existing infrastructure raises concerns about its ability to mitigate future cost increases.”
Translation: The Authority has followed Willie Brown’s advice... the first budget is really just a down payment. If people knew the real cost from the start, nothing would ever be approved.
(Excerpt) Read more at sbsun.com ...
No problem has existed liberals haven’t found that money can’t be thrown at.
“What’s wrong with regular rail?”
It’s not putting $$ in the right pockets.
Its too slow.
HSR will never be faster under real world conditions. It was a snow job.
If they estimate 77 billion it’s probably at least twice that.
I enjoy taking the train, much more so than flying by an order of magnitude. My next trip to CA to visit family will be via train.
By the way: Most people have no idea how fast California trains travel. I was amazed.
I just wish they were run by responsible capitalists who would include commerce cars for the passengers: Restaurant, bar, etc. (perhaps even a party car) and let competition dictate prices, drive sales & help finance the operation.
Just like the airports do with static storefronts.
Indeed. I just compared the Acela prices from Washington, DC to Boston--$531 for the dates I selected, round trip--and plane tickets for the same, which range from $115 to $321 for non-stop flights. And the flights are much faster, 1h35m each way.
I like trains just fine, but this high-speed rail project is fraught with problems no matter how one looks at it.
One issue I never see brought up by the supposedly environmentally aware is that a high speed train will be devastating to wildlife. If normal freeways with speeds of 60-80 mph are responsible for so many thousands of wildlife deaths, how many more wild animals are going to be killed by trains barreling through at speeds above 100 mph? But I guess wild animal lives don't matter when it's "for the environment." After all, the bird carnage caused by "environmentally friendly" windmills don't seem to faze these people at all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.