California's bullet train is hurtling toward a multibillion-dollar overrun

If you go to the Calif High Speed Rail site they offer reasons.
1 less expensive agricultural land
2. it will be used to test equipment, systems, training, etc
3. the local economy will benefit. (Fresno county unemployment has dropped from about 15% two years ago to about 9% today)

They sold it to the public claiming fast, efficient and cheap transportation.
Once it was approved, it morphed into social engineering.
It will fully mature into a perpetual tax burden.

That's how these things work.

 

Thanks

 

You and your boys will have died of old age before the first ticket is ever sold for Jerry Browns "Bullet Train" is ever completed.

There's a reason why Linda Ronstadt called Jerry Brown, Governor "Moonbeam."

 

California is very likely to be cut off from all federal money since the California legislature plans to fight against ending sanctuary cities in California.

Governor Moonbeam just appointed an anti-constitutionalist socialist, Xavier Becerra to be the next state attorney general to fight America and the Trump administration and also plan to hire Obama's former incompetent Attorney General Eric Holder to fight Middle America and Donald Trump.

 

I use to ride Amtrak a lot when I lived back east. Pennsylvania subsidized Amtrak so basically everyone could afford it and while I wouldn't call people dregs, there where a lot of riders who didn't care about how they acted or looked.
However as soon as the train left PA (and the subsidized rides ended), the fares shot way up and suddenly it was a very classy ride. Amtrak from Philadelphia to New York was $50 to $80. Where as the local commuter train (which took three times longer) was $12.

I guess what I'm saying is if the California train tickets are going to cost a lot, the dregs ain't gettin on.

 

Didn't see that coming. California is a state full of tools.

 

I'm sure California's GDP can cover it. After all, the liberals brag so much about it...

 

Hahaha that was a good one.

Trains to nowhere, sex changes for incarcerated murderers, millions spent fighting to keep illegals in the country....all on the taxpayer dime.

The only federal funding we should use is a wall around CA to keep the infection out of the rest of the country when CA implodes.

 

Your boys will be men by the time its finished.

 

LOL I should have known that Apacherat would knock that one out of the park before I posted.

 

Yeh, but where else do you get to see Interns from the Wharton Business School walking about in Goofy costumes?

 

California will get Mexico to pay for it.

Government itself is a total out of control overrun of costs, that's why Americans elected Trump

 

Ah, Disneyland: People dressed up in silly costumes, crowds wandering aimlessly, parades with fantasy characters dancing on floats.

I don't understand why you'd have to leave the bay area.

 

This is why your state is an absolute basket case.

 

Now that's probably true

 

They entrusted the project to a group that never built anything before, stopped a state audit, intends to raise taxes and is 7 years behind schedule. There's something very corrupt going on here. No surprise coming from democrats. There are only 2 rail systems in the world that are self sustaining, but hey, California is already billions in debt, so they double down on stupid.

 

The California state capital.

 

From yesterday's San Jose Mercury News -
"The high-speed rail board approved $3.2 billion in funding Tuesday for two segments: $2.6 billion for a 119-mile leg connecting Fresno to Madera and $600 million to electrify a 55-mile stretch of existing Caltrain tracks in the San Jose Peninsula that will eventually connect with high-speed rail. The money is needed so the state meets its obligation to “match” federal funding but had been tied up in litigation for several years."

The State has been selling bonds to help finance the project, which is also fatally dependent upon matching Federal funds.
Considering the fact the State is openly defying Trump on the issue of illegals and sanctuary politics, I'm not sure bonds purchased prior to Nov 9 were good investments.

PS: 2.6 billion for 119 miles? Do the math. Insane!

 

Myself, I think they cut off the water to the farms in the central valley with the specific purpose of making the land worthless so they can buy it cheap for the tracks. That's just my opinion.

 

Perfect example of how liberals spend money

 

They appear to be lining their pockets with quite a bit of it. Shut off the water to the farms in the path of the "Brown Streak", then take the land by eminent domain and pay the farmers for vacant land NOT crop producing farm land.

 

Politicians have to lie about the cost of projects like this or they can't sucker people into approving it.

 

That is partially true, but the problem is these types of projects always plow through some of the most expensive land in the country, and that alone can be volatile.

 

Can anyone who supports this boondoggle make a reasonable counter argument to this?

California’s Big Dig
Elaine Chao can take the train to Fresno off federal life support.

Elaine Chao is rolling to confirmation as Transportation Secretary with little trouble. The same can’t be said of California’s beleaguered bullet train, and one of Ms. Chao’s first orders of business should be to cut the choo choo off federal life support.

Last week the Los Angeles Times reported that the first 118-mile segment in the state’s rural Central Valley could run 50% over budget, according to an internal Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) risk analysis that was labelled “confidential.” The FRA also warned that the California High-Speed Rail Authority would miss several deadlines.

The Obama Administration gave California $3.2 billion to build the 500-mile bullet train from San Francisco to Anaheim, which seven years later still isn’t shovel ready. The $10 billion in state bonds that voters approved in 2008 for the $64 billion (and counting) train have been tied up in litigation. Meanwhile, Democratic legislators have been loath to appropriate funds beyond a fraction of the revenues generated by California’s cap-and-trade program, which is also under legal challenge.

So the Obama Administration has repeatedly eased the spending and construction deadlines in federal grant agreements. Last year the White House provided a cash advance rather than require the railroad authority to match federal funds dollar for dollar.

Yet according to the FRA document, the rail authority still won’t meet its June deadline for spending stimulus funds. Merely 56% of the 1,606 parcels of land have been acquired for the first segment. Environmental reviews that were supposed to be done this year won’t be completed until 2020. The FRA estimates that the first segment won’t be completed until 2024—seven years behind schedule—and could cost $3 billion more than the $6.4 billion estimated.

All of this is ominous since the Central Valley segment was supposed to be relatively simple compared to building in urban areas and boring through the geologically complex Tehachapi mountains. That’s why the Obama Administration required that it be built first.

The Trump Administration can stop the federal cash advances, which are merely encouraging the rail authority to burn through funds to meet spending deadlines. This may also be contributing to cost overruns. Why should national taxpayers pay for a boondoggle that California’s liberal legislators won’t?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-big-dig-1484609909