Posted on 05/18/2016 11:45:07 AM PDT by reaganaut1
High-speed rail is turning out to be a slow-speed proposition.
The first segment of California’s first-in-the-nation bullet-train project, currently scheduled for completion in 2018, will not be done until the end of 2022, according to a contract revision the Obama administration quietly approved this morning. That initial 119-mile segment through the relatively flat and empty Central Valley was considered the easiest-to-build stretch of a planned $64 billion line, which is eventually supposed to zip passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours. So the four-year delay is sure to spark new doubts about whether the state’s—and perhaps the nation’s—most controversial and expensive infrastructure project will ever reach its destination.
“Four years? It just shows that something deep inside this project has gone terribly wrong,” says state legislator Jim Patterson, a Fresno Republican who recently shepherded a bill to increase oversight of high-speed rail through the Democratic-controlled assembly. “The time is coming where we’re going to have to call a halt.”
State and federal officials downplayed the shift in the timetable, saying it partly reflected more ambitious plans for the Central Valley work, and in any case merely ratified construction realities on the ground. Jeff Morales, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said his agency is accelerating its pace after a painfully slow start, with a half dozen construction crews now building overpasses, relocating utilities, and demolishing structures from north of Fresno down to the Bakersfield area.
“Early on, there was a vision, but no clear sense of how to implement that vision,” Morales said. “We have that now, and we’re moving ahead aggressively.”
Still, the authority has yet to lay any tracks, and it has purchased less than half the land it needs in the Central Valley.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
This is good news. Until they lay the actual track, much of the right-of-way purchased can be rededicated as hyperloop. (Not all of it... the hyperloop can’t make turns very well.)
Projected cost of rail: $68 billion to make the trip in 3 hours.
Projected cost of hyperloop: $6 billion (let’s say $10 for argument’s sake) to make it in 40 minutes.
Over half a billion dollars per mile (and that’s if they stay on budget, which they won’t). That’s absurd even by liberal standards. Should be interesting to see the competition between the various private companies now working on hyperloop, and the government-funded “high-speed” rail sloth.
Man, in Freepworld you’ve got to be quick on the trigger, and you were just a little quicker with the same thought.
“with a half dozen construction crews now building overpasses, relocating utilities, and demolishing structures from north of Fresno down to the Bakersfield area.”
Oh, never mind. Seriously, you guys are building the overpasses before you secure the right-of-way?
Only the mentally deficient (ie Democrats) believe that it's intended to move people. If it ever gets built the real cost will probably exceed the cost per passenger of chartering a jet to fly them between the two cities.
Buckeye, we also used to build stuff based on need and future economic benefit from investments in infrastructure, I’m not sure this train will be worth the annual operational costs once they get it built.
When I fly from SF to LA, costs about $100 by air in an hour. Why should I take a train that takes 3 times as long? I often drive and do it in about 10 hours, and it's an easy pleasant drive (until hitting the LA freeways, but same problem getting out of the airport or a rail station to hit the LA freeways to get to final destination). The $68 billion will turn into $150 billion by the time this fiasco rail gets done.
Just think...
In 2022, construction on high-speed rail may have finally started in Fresno. hyperloop will be a reality in central Europe. and planned in Texas and the Piedmont region in the U.S. Sacramento will be itchy to connect Los Angeles/San Diego through Phoenix to San Antonio so they can get to Washington in just about three hours in their private pods.
But that would expose the insanity of their $68 billion boondoggle, so instead they’ll pass environmental regulations to gum up the works.
how did teamobama get involved in this?
Exactly! Why is the fed involved if it doesn’t go from one state to another?
$3300 per inch.
$40,000 per foot
$210,000,000 per mile
It’s not a high-speed rail project, it’s a criminal act.
Not a cent is being wasted. Once you understand that the goal is not to build a railroad, but to transfer money from the taxpayers into designated pockets, you will understand that it is really an extremely efficient program.
Ed
I have it on good authority that the Hover Dam had a safety factor of 10 (they wanted to build more so the first one had to be good...).
They don’t have an accepted route into SF. They don’t have a feasible or accepted route into LA. There are obviously dozens of further lawsuits just waiting in the wings ready to file against it if it ever looks threatening. They even have t explained how they’d separate the supposed 200 mph trains from the hundreds of cross streets and highways along the route. No, this silly pipe dream will be a long time off, if ever. Meanwhile. Everyone still can fly this “”four hour train route” in just one hour, using any of three SF bay area airports and six LA region airfields. Oh yeah, nobody’s shown us that folks will actually want to consume four or five boring hours on a train instead of one hour on a fast jet plane
There are sliderule graphic models for computer monitors that are fun. Slide rules are still very quick to pick gear pair tooth counts to get close to the ratio you want.
When our great projects of the past were completed we had a business and construction industry oriented towards private work with budgets, deadlines, and results. At the time those industries were co-opted by the government to build great things.
Fast forward 70 years and private multi-billion dollar projects are few and far between, and the whole industry has re-oriented around government work. The results are as predictable as night following day.
Your just not thinking about the hundreds of millions of people (wetbacks, gangbangers, drug dealers, etc.) who will be riding this train to newer, richer, neighborhoods (hunting grounds) to rape, murder, plunder, and destroy.
They will finally be able to spread their subhuman desease much more equitably.
OH, THE JOYS OF DIVERSITY.
Although I sort of agree with you, passenger train service in the US has been a total flop since the 70’s. If not before. We’ve moved on. There are multiple airlines that land in just about any city you need to go to and for a cost much cheaper than rail service. Outside of a 60 mile commute, there is no need for passenger rail service in the states. Take a look at Amtrak’s financials. You and I pay every year for that service to not work....
This is coming from a man who loves trains.
Flying time between 1:10 and 1:25 not counting the usual extraneous time consumers.
Driving time is around 6 to 8 hours depending on route.
64 billion to go 3 hours? Uh huh.
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