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California's train to nowhere continues to burn money
Washington Examiner ^ | February 12, 2021 | Zachary Fa ria

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: boondoggle; california; highspeedrail; laborunions; train; unions
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To: Avalon Memories

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.

21 posted on 03/13/2021 1:25:43 PM PST by FormerFRLurker
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To: george76

It’s the “Flash Train”. It burns up money in a flash.


22 posted on 03/13/2021 1:33:33 PM PST by Mark (Celebrities... is there anything they do not know? Homer Simpson)
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To: george76
...in order to connect Merced to Bakersfield.

Coastal Californians' response: "Where? To where?"

23 posted on 03/13/2021 2:21:32 PM PST by TChad (The MSM, having nuked its own credibility, is now bombing the rubble.)
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To: TChad
Is there a stop at Button Willow.....?


24 posted on 03/13/2021 2:39:10 PM PST by spokeshave (White Confederate statue kills black man......Another month of protests.... (HT to seawolf101))
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To: spokeshave
Is there a stop at Button Willow.....?

Actually, no. While it has a giant steer, it has no truck-stop dinosaurs.

25 posted on 03/13/2021 3:14:41 PM PST by TChad (The MSM, having nuked its own credibility, is now bombing the rubble.)
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To: george76

From nowhere to no where. May as well stay on the bus


26 posted on 03/13/2021 3:24:50 PM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: george76

At least in the old days people ended up with a Golden Calf. Now it’s just a pile of receipts.


27 posted on 03/13/2021 3:53:47 PM PST by Bernard (“When once the guardian angel has taken flight, everything is lost”. – William H. Seward, 1/12/1861)
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To: mo
the entire budget converted to salaries, bennies and retirement.

This boondoggle needs billions and billions of federal money.

Rail going from nowhere to nowhere is a critical national priority--and a crisis--and Americans need to unify to support this critical national infrastructure!
28 posted on 03/13/2021 4:07:42 PM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Mark

It’s the Brown Streak.


29 posted on 03/13/2021 4:46:21 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: blueunicorn6

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.


30 posted on 03/13/2021 4:49:24 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Billthedrill

$16,287.87 per FOOT......


31 posted on 03/13/2021 6:32:58 PM PST by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: george76

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.


32 posted on 03/13/2021 7:13:59 PM PST by frank ballenger (End vote fraud, harvesting,non-citizen votingop & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: george76

All aaaaBOARDD!!!

The Choo Choo to NoWhere eXpre$$ is about to leave the tracks.. Destination :: (Seriesly)?

Cinch up your masks!!


33 posted on 03/13/2021 8:17:30 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Monthly Donors Rock!!! In CONgre$$ WE're Disgusted!! NMP!)
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To: george76

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


34 posted on 03/13/2021 8:23:16 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Monthly Donors Rock!!! In CONgre$$ WE're Disgusted!! NMP!)
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To: george76

It’s a dusty dump connecting another dusty dump. Idiots.


35 posted on 03/14/2021 12:22:15 AM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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