California again delays bullet train first stage, begs feds for more time to avoid funding cutoff

American Thinker ^ | 02/07/2021 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

The fiasco of California’s pathetic attempt to build a high-speed rail (HSR) line between Los Angeles and San Francisco continues to generate far more embarrassment than actual completed track. Once again, for what seems like the umpteenth time, California is unable to meet the deadlines imposed by the federal government as a condition of receiving federal aid – in other words, subsidies from other states for building what should be commonly known as “Brown’s Folly,” after Jerry Brown, who go the itch to build it after riding bullet trains in Japan and Europe.

Kathleen Ronayne reports for the Associated Press:

California is again pushing back the deadline and raising the cost for its high-speed rail project, this time asking the Biden administration for a one-year extension on completing construction on a section of track in the Central Valley.

Brian Kelly, the project's chief executive officer, detailed delays and cost changes to the project in a letter released Friday alongside the project's updated business plan. 

The track segment being delayed is the legendary “train to nowhere,” 119 miles of track on flat farmland, connecting Bakersfield to Madera. Not that anybody other than a few railfans a day would want to pay a premium surcharge to get from one Central Valley town to another one about an hour faster than it could be driven. The only reason these tracks are being built first is that they are much, much easier (and cheaper) to build than building through the mountains that surround both the LA Basin and the Bay Area. But even where it is easiest, the project can't deliver results.

The strategy, in other words, is to build something that almost nobody would use, and then demand that money be produced to build the rest.

[G Larry]

This is Government THEFT of the highest order.

[adorno]

Not only is it a folly, but, democrats should be embarrassed to be calling it a ‘bullet’ train, for obvious reasons.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

The Bullet Train is turning into a banana slug.

[W.]

How much fatter did Jerry Brown’s wallet get thanks to this fiasco, I wonder?

[rellic]

You think the CA train is bad, read up on Honolulu’s 11 Billion and counting train for a few 100,000 people!

[lowbridge]

It took only 6 years to build the first transcontinental railroad (1912 miles). From 1863-1869. And that was without todays technology.

[exDemMom]

The builders of the transcontinental railroad did not have to conduct multiyear environmental impact studies, nor did they have to purchase right-of-ways through vast tracts of already owned land.

I’m sure that the bullet train construction would go a bit faster without those concerns.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: It took only 6 years to build the first transcontinental railroad (1912 miles). From 1863-1869.

And how much did they pay the workers then? ( especially the Chinese Coolies ).

[SuperLuminal]

First the Iranians will receive new billions from our communist rulers...

Then the chicoms will get billions in value from our communist rulers...

Then CA will get billions for bullet construction from our communist rulers...

Then NY and every other blue state or city will get billions from our communist rulers...

So, the question is (Snicker), where will the money being passed out so freely come from?
Simple... We serfs will just have wear heavier chains...
"Chains" = Higher income taxes... Higher gasoline taxes... Higher death taxes... Rampant double-digit inflation... 401K confiscation... Confiscation of all serf-held gold...

All of these have already been proposed & promised...

Bow down... Obey... Snitch...

[DAC21]

Kalifornia will get whatever they want from JoeK Bimentia

[SaxxonWoods]

The only train projects that require govt funding are those that won’t make money.

If this train was a viable idea, Bloomberg, Gates or Bezos would be building it and the govt would be taxing it instead of funding it.

[unclebankster]

Isn’t amazing what our capitalist ancestors could do with a raw labor supply. Today the project would never get finished.The massive environmental lobby would set up multiple barriers in the courts and legislatures.

Also corporate rules and hiring standards would make it nearly impossible.

What happened to Wu? We had to fire him, he smoked opium last night.

Where’s McCormick? We fired him, his wife said he got drunk and beat her.

Where’s Smith? He finished lines on the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, he’s the best engineer we have.

We let Smith go because he lied on his resume. He doesn’t have an engineering degree.

[PGR88]

I’ll wager $100 and 10:1 odds this project never runs a single train.

[DoughtyOne]

Bullet Train, from noway to nowhere...

   
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Thud!       \\\0///


Buy your season pass now, opening in 2317.

Biden will fix it, by making it worse.

[PGR88]

Isn’t amazing what our capitalist ancestors could do with a raw labor supply. Today the project would never get finished.

in the late 1890s, as a teen, my great-uncle used to bring milk from his family dairy farm by train for sale to a diary in downtown Pittsburgh about 25 miles away. I think I remember him saying the round trip cost him 20 cents and he would make the trip before school.

America could never afford to build or run such a thing today.

[blueplum]

I wonder how many tons of copper wire and other equipment has been stolen from the construction sites, to be replaced, to be stolen, to be replaced, to be stolen, rinse and repeat ad nauseam? thousands at least - all headed south, enriching only thieves of a certain persuasion

[roadcat]

The builders of the transcontinental railroad did not have to conduct multiyear environmental impact studies, nor did they have to purchase right-of-ways through vast tracts of already owned land.

One thing hasn't changed. The political tycoons behind building these railroads were lying thieves and cheated taxpayers and the public. Nothing has changed in that regard. Many politicians became rich, and many rich tycoons became politicians (Stanford became CA governor). This bullet train to nowhere is all about enriching political friends (such as Feinstein's husband Richard Blum getting the near billion dollar contract).

[ronnie raygun]

Bullet train............funding illegals and handouts

[exDemMom]

Indeed.

I have to wonder why this bullet train project continues to be such a quagmire, when Japan and France have successfully built bullet trains. I have been chalking it up to bad management and environmental regulations meant to stop any sort of development. But political corruption certainly can be another factor.