Posted on 10/02/2023 5:41:25 AM PDT by MtnClimber
In 1996, the California legislature created the high speed rail authority.
In 2008, voters passed a $33 billion bond to build an envisioned 800 mile project eventually to link Sacramento with San Diego.
Fifteen years later, a scaled-down plan from Bakersfield to Merced remains not even half finished. Yet the envisioned costs will exceed that of the original estimate for the entire project.
The rail authority now estimates that just the modest 178 mile route—only about a fifth of the authorized distance—will not be completed at least until 2030. Past high speed estimates of both time and cost targets have been widely wrong and perhaps deliberately misleading.
Total costs for the entire project are now estimated at nearly $130 billion. Many expect that figure to double in the next quarter-century. Planners also concede there will likely not be much high speed rider demand from San Joaquin Valley residents willing to pay $86 to travel at a supposed 200 mph from Bakersfield to Merced.
Nine years ago voters amid drought and water shortages also passed a state water bond, authorizing $7.5 billion in new water projects and initiatives.
Some $2.7 billion was targeted for new dams and reservoirs. The current water storage system had not been enlarged since the early 1980s, when the state population was 15 million fewer residents.
So far not a single dam or new reservoir has been built. And Californians expect more water rationing statewide anytime the state experiences a modest drought.
In 2017, a $15 billion bond authorized a complete remodeling of Los Angeles International Airport—recognized as one of the more congested, disorganized, and unpleasant airports in America.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
Why are film folks Dem? Because they came to GA from CA? Because they are “artistic” folks who tend Dem? GA is basically CA-South imo. My NW GA district is the exception though.https://greene.house.gov/about/
With an exit at Brown Material Road.
Have enough movie people moved to GA to influence elections?
The fact that GA has 2 Dem Senators while our neighboring states don’t says it all. “If you build it, they will come” irrc comes from Kevin Costner’s movie “Field of Dreams” but it certainly explains what happened after “Deliverance” was filmed in GA. GA started offering all sorts of incentives to film here and now here we are.
buttonwillow to bakersfield is a short trip west to east on hwy 58
Ping
Lived there sometime back in the 40s. I was too young to remember much of it,except that it seemed a very nice place to live. We lived in Santa Monica at that time.. Now, I never want to go back to it as I was last there to visit in 1986. People like the current governor & many others have ruined what was probably at one time the the premier state in the nation. Now it seems like most of the bad ideas,many that become law for the rest of us, have originated in California.
Why has it become the land of poor decisions?
“Planners also concede there will likely not be much high speed rider demand from San Joaquin Valley residents willing to pay $86 to travel at a supposed 200 mph from Bakersfield to Merced.”
In contrast to that taxpayer looting scheme, Brightline West is building high speed rail from SoCal to Las Vegas and the demand should be huge. They are promising a 2 hr 10 min trip to Vegas from Apple Valley.
Brightline already runs a successful passenger train operation in Florida so this isn’t a pipe dream or an investment scam.
The California terminus is Rancho Cucamonga where Brightline service will connect with the L.A. Metrolink.
https://www.brightlinewest.com/
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.