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Posted on 04/06/2026 1:53:54 PM PDT by Seaplaner
California's delayed, over-budget high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco is running fast in only one direction: Rising costs to even get rolling, which are now estimated to be $126 billion.
"Today, we estimate with the right optimization just over $125 billion," California High Speed Rail Authority board member Anthony Williams told CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday. "I think $126 billion is the current estimate for that."
Snip
"We’re now in 2026: There are no trains; there’s no track laid; it was a complete bait and switch," Rep. Vince Fong, R-Calif., told "60 Minutes," saying the project "needs to stop."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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For a sad laugh, check out the rider projections for the super cho-cho...
Segment Projected Ridership (Annual)
Phase 1 (Overall) 23.6 - 30.6 million
Central Valley Segment 1.6 - 2.2 million
For example, the Central Valley segment, currently under construction with not one micron of track yet laid, spans 171 miles connecting Merced to Bakersfield. It would take longer to take the bullet train (considering parking, clearing security, and travel from the station to the train depot destination via taxi or rental car) than it would to take a private car. And, the ticket cost, even if subsidized, would be sky high. A private car driving on Hwy 99 would be quicker, cheaper, and less likely to be late (trains are often late.)
1.6-2.2 million pax/year? HA! Everyone knows that's simply not true. For perspective, the population of Merced is about 86,000 peeps, and it's not a travel destination for hundreds or thousands, much less millions per year.
Estimate X 3, Schedule X 5 and probably off by a factor of 7 since it’s California.
Taking money to build something or provide daycare, hospice care, grade school educations, job training, public housing, health services, is done with no intention of ever producing the product. That would just be silly overheads and citizen expectations going forward.
Why give a bureaucrat a fish, when you can teach him how to get billions in grant money defining what a fish is, while feasting on caviar at lodging provided by taxpayers? !!
Fishing is no longer a commercially viable thing to do.
Who got all the money??
Investigate!!
And prosecute!!
Many industries in California have been behind the promoting of the black hole project, for what it would give them in state contracts, making them rich, and providing election campaign donations to the politicians supporting the boondoggle. California is 100% corruption all the time. They use language of “renewables”,”green energy” and “high speed rail” (which goes faster, a train or a plane??), but that is all for promotion purposes and never fits the reality.
The Florida 2025 state budget was $117 billion.
So, ... Ste Somali Fraudsters still have a few things yet to learn about stealing taxpayer money.....
And Newsome and the California choo choo train people are just the ones to teach them!
Reminds me of this Simpsons episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJ4MFCxiuo
The Kyushu Shinkansen - which runs from Fukuoka to Kagoshima ( approx. 155 miles) - cost $ 10 billion in total ( built in halfs ) and was finished in 2011 .
And this bozo wants to be President.
“Newsom’s California rail project now expected to cost $126B, official admits, with still no tracks laid”. I keep saying the problem is too much hair gel.
And a high school student could have discerned that this project would never become an economic feasibility. The cruelest irony is that the section that has been completed, less the tracks, of course, is a ride from nowhere to nowhere. You could project the ridership of this section in the dozens per day. The Rail Authority could offer free chauffered limousines for less money than this monstrosity is gonna cost.
The Transcontinental Railroad finished in 1869 took less time to finish than this boondoggle. The Central Pacific had to go through the Sierra Nevada while Newsom’s project can’t manage to lay any track in the flat Central Valley.
If Newsom runs in ‘28 the ads have already written themselves.
Instead, build high speed toll roads. People would pay good money to drive 100 mph from Sacramento to LA or LA to Las Vegas. Meter the traffic to minimize racing and crashes.
That would get a lot of crazy drivers off the regular roads and highways and it would pay for itself.
And that was without all the machinery we have available today. Of course, they had a lot more Chinese workers back then but....
A brand new Boeing 737 MA is $130,00,000
Flight time is 90 minutes from LA to SFO. Assuming that you set up a special terminal for only those flights, you could reduce wait time to minutes.
Assume $200,000,000 to isolate the terminal. Projected train ridership is six million a year. That works out to 16,000 per day. A 737 MAX holds 23 people. Assuming each plane makes four round trip flights fully loaded per day, they would need to purchase Nine new aircraft to handle the load. That’s just over $1.1 Billion.
Problem solved.
The California Democrat politician’s pockets are just a bulging with looted taxpayer money and the people are wondering where all of the money is going.
Boy o boy....talk about putting things in perspective. No wonder the uber-rich are fleeing CA for FL/TX. I don’t have Fox National through cable, only the app, which limits programs I can watch.
Nevertheless, I do have Fox5 (Wash, DC), and they are waaay to the left of Fox National (can you imagine?). Their 1st report on Iran in the 2PM EST timeslot featured Jamal Abdi, the President of of the National Iranian American Council. I am so disgusted at Fox in general, and I will publish as many Fox5 advertisers as I can find. Can you/fellow Freepers do the same?
Chinese style.
HA! Good One!
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