Posted on 04/19/2023 11:03:22 AM PDT by CFW
It sounded too good to be true, and it was. Travel from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles in two hours via high-speed rail. California voters in 2008 approved Proposition 1A, authorizing $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to build this so-called “bullet train.” They were told not only that the total cost would only be $33 billion but also that the entire 500-mile system would be running by 2030.
Fat chance.
In March of this year, the California High-Speed Rail Authority released its latest progress report. The project is now projected to cost $127 billion, and there is no longer a projected completion date. The initial stretch of track, a 171-mile segment across the sparsely populated, pancake-flat San Joaquin Valley, is projected to be done by 2030 at a cost of $35 billion.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
Won’t Elon Musk have his network of teleporters in place by then?
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What is that all about? I haven’t Elon Musk ever use a teleprompter. Maybe you have confused him with someone else.
“... take years and years and billions in attorneys fees ...”
I think that you may have hit upon something there ... considering all the lawfare that has gone on for the last decade, it appears that this project is a very successful gambit for transferring dollars from the taxpayers to many in the legal profession. So of course there is no interest by the legal beagles to stop the gravy train pardon the pun.
I seem to remember flying from LA to Sea-Tac and there was no time to even take a nap. So, is the train only going to take people from SF to LA with no stops in between? If not, it will have to run slower, stop in various places, making it not much faster that a bus trip. It will be like the Smart rail in WA, where nobody rides it but the homeless, because they can do it for free.
Sounds like a microaggressive kind of word!
We need to change that to "High Speed" (for an extra $4 billion)
The Tōkaidō line, the original bullet train line from 1964, had lots of cost overruns, and had to be supported with US money lent from the World Bank. Cost even more to have the line upgraded from the original 130 mph top speed to today’s 177 mph.
France’s LGV Sud-Est cost an average of $23 million per mile, including rolling stock. That’s converted to 2023 dollars. (Or so the figures say. Costs were reduced by using existing passenger railroad terminals.)
All true. FWIW, I was thinking more of what has been added since privatization, such as the Hokuriku segment, the section from Nagato to Toyama (60 mi) was built in two years, 2012-2014. Not to mention the step-by-step construction of the Tohoku lines, all the way to Hokkaido now and in Sapporo by the end of the decade. That's the kind of dedication that doesn't exist in any train line anywhere in this country, including the congested BosWash region.
I recall the Nig Dig in Boston. That was Tip ONeill’s bottomless pit for graft at the expense of the tax payer..
“Eventually this project, like the bridge over the river Kwai will be completed. Suspect the Democrats in California will celebrate. Suspect the Governor, most of the Legislature, big donors, Hollywood celebrities and of course pardoned felons will board the first train in San Francisco and ride it down to LA. It will be quite a sight.”
Reminds me of the short film: Psychic Parrot.
Plot summary:
An ordinary middle class suburban couple sees a celebrity parrot on TV who supposedly foretells the future. The parrot predicts the world is coming to an end. The couple are initially shocked, and then decide to make the most of the time they have left. They get dressed up and decide to celebrate as if it was New Year’s Eve, since the world is supposed to end at midnight. On TV, it is shown that all the important people of the world are selected (virtually ALL of them are politicians) and sent to the moon in a space ship so they can escape the earth’s destruction. As midnight approaches the couple gamely prepares to toast their demise, but midnight comes and the world doesn’t end. A special comes on TV and the parrot explains he made a mistake. As he starts to correct himself, the moon blows up.
Seems like a perfect fate for these CA a$$hole$
It would be a good thing for those of us who intend to be tourists in southern California. Fly to LA, visit DNL, then use transit to get to Lego Land and then San Diego. As it is I think it takes 8 hours on public transport to get from Anaheim to San Diego.
Four times more expensive ($127 billion vs $33 billion estimate) for one-third the length (171 miles vs 500+ miles) and with the target due date (2030) scrapped with no end in sight. You can’t make this stuff up and yet zero accountability by the voters and zero fucks given by the politicians.
<>$127 Billion!!!<>
Florida’s 2023 state budget is $115 Billion.
I remember a time some 20 years ago when the Connecticut budget was the same as Florida’s. Difference 5 times the population in FL than CT. Eye opener.
2020 Florida population: 21.5 million. 2023 budget: $115 Billion.
2020 New York state population: 20.2 million. 2023 budget: $227 Billion.
Us rednecks down here are doing pretty well.
The “NIG DIG”?
Did your spellcheck miss that one, or are you just pulling our lanyard?
YUP; you would be better off going to Long Beach airport and flying to Dago.
:The initial stretch of track, a 171-mile segment across the sparsely populated, pancake-flat San Joaquin Valley, is projected to be done by 2030.”
Everyone has seen the famous photo of the ‘meeting of the rails’ at Promontory Point, Utah. I always found it amazing that the two railroads involved started paying service the very next day.
Cut the time of travel to California to four/five days from three months. How much time will be saved from driving to/from Merced and Bakersfield? Maybe an hour?
Ooops, I meant the Big Dig. It was a highway and tunnel project through Boston. It went millions and millions over estimate.
Oh no. It was much worse. BOTH ends of the railroad were serving paying customers at BOTH ends even during early construction. (One of the arguments between various companies and owners of each company was how much the construction companies got paid for bringing rails, workers, food, and wood forward to the working crews.
But the construction companies were owned by the Raolroad Companies themselves!
“...how much the construction companies got paid for bringing rails, workers, food, and wood forward to the working crews.”
One curious fact was the U.P. ties were rough-hewed logs, while the Central Pacific used proper squared-off ties.
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