Posted on 03/13/2021 11:12:18 AM PST by george76
California’s high-speed rail plan is running on fumes. Whether the actual train ever runs is anyone’s guess.
The project is seeking to withdraw an additional $4.1 billion in funding, the last of a $10 billion bond approved by voters in 2008. Voters approved that measure, thinking it would be used to connect the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Instead, it’s being requested in order to connect Merced to Bakersfield — the still-incomplete first stage of the project, which covers less than half of the hoped-for distance.
The project has been (forgive me) a train wreck from the beginning. Its plan to start by carving through the rural farmland of the Central Valley incensed the more conservative region, giving rise to accusations that the state wouldn’t follow through on the project. Construction finally began in 2015, three years behind schedule. Now, from the air, you can see where the path carves through fields, with partially built structures peppering the way.
The plan started with a price tag of $33 billion and a funding gap that officials hoped to fill with government money. Now, it’s inflated to $77 billion, and it could still jump up to over $98 billion.
The completion date has been pushed back repeatedly. In June 2018, it was set for completion in 2033, 13 years behind schedule. Even that seems optimistic, as the Central Valley track has already been pushed back to 2030.
The project was always a massive boondoggle, pushed by labor unions by labor unions and developers seeking to cash in on lucrative contracts. This was clear to anyone who was paying attention. The constant delays and cost increases were as predictable as the sunrise.
All this money for a project whose completion never gets any closer on the horizon. And the money could have been put to plenty of other uses. It could have gone toward addressing California's worst-in-the-nation poverty or the fact that the Golden State is now home to more than 25% of the nation’s homeless.
The grand, shining train that former Gov. Jerry Brown envisioned in 2012 will never be. At best, a mere shadow of the planned rail line may become operational when he’s in his 90s and for double (or even triple) the anticipated price.
And, of course, most Californians have no reason to ride a train between Merced and Bakersfield, even if it becomes reality. But the money incinerator will continue to burn their tax dollars, and no one knows when it will stop.
This high-speed rail is not Pelosi’s doing. This is all Jerry Brown’s doing. It is Brown’s boondoggle from start to whenever it is finished
I agree. I know this is the stuff of fantasy but I wish there were a way we could make Brown personally responsible for the cost of the rail to nowhere.
It’s the “Flash Train”. It burns up money in a flash.
Coastal Californians' response: "Where? To where?"
Actually, no. While it has a giant steer, it has no truck-stop dinosaurs.
From nowhere to no where. May as well stay on the bus
At least in the old days people ended up with a Golden Calf. Now it’s just a pile of receipts.
It’s the Brown Streak.
The solution is easy. China Joe got Hunter Biden on the board of AMTRAK in 2006. Send the crack-head out west to clean up the mess. He knows his choo-choo trains.
$16,287.87 per FOOT......
In Detroit the goal was to have the People Mover rail system travel from the southernmost limit of downtown at the Detroit River, north to the end of the city at 8 Mile Road. Thus no congestion from interstates and roads and dangers to drivers from crime all the way. Suburbs begin at 8 Mile.
Today: long ago the dream died and the total area covered is only 2.79 miles in a tiny loop around downtown and out a little and back.
All aaaaBOARDD!!!
The Choo Choo to NoWhere eXpre$$ is about to leave the tracks.. Destination :: (Seriesly)?
Cinch up your masks!!
A lot of folks forget that SchwarzenKennedy was for this boondoggle before he soured on it down the road. Jerry Brown just kept the dough flowing altho he claimed to be a people’s gubinor.
2008 FR thread
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043208/posts
It’s a dusty dump connecting another dusty dump. Idiots.
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