Bullet train project short of cash, staff (Calif.)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 03/23/2004 | Steve Lawrence (AP)

[TenaciousZ]

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's high-speed train project is running short of cash and staff and may not have the resources to keep its office manned or complete an environmental study, its executive director said Tuesday.

"We are just this much short of basically closing the door," Mehdi Morshed told members of the California High-Speed Rail Authority's board.

[Poohbah]

Cheops' Law: Nothing is ever built on time or within budget.

[Simmy2.5]

Unspoken rule here. All articles pertaining to High Speed Rail, you must ping Willie Green.

[goldstategop]

An expensive boondoggle at a time when California is hunting around for spare cash and then some. This is one White Elephant that will never be built.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Meanwhile, a state Senate committee voted to postpone a public vote on nearly $10 billion in bonds that would help pay for the first leg of the rail project...

"A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." -- Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yet another story of rail transit, a financial boondoggle from coast to coast: 18th century technology, designed to take people from where they ain't to where they don't wanna go, complete with endemic bureaucracy and graft, at taxpayer expense. When will we wake up?

[goldstategop]

Rail travel made sense in the days before the airplane was invented. Today, its just less of a hassle to fly to the nearest destination and you get there faster.

[TheOtherOne]

[ApplegateRanch]

True enough, but try flying from Stockton to San Fagcisco & back for work everyday. This is a "commuter" train, though like everything else there, Californicate is stretching the definiton of 'commuter' a bit.

That said, it won't take you where you need to go, from where you are; nor leave nor arrive when you need to.

I voted against BART in my first voting experience; it passed anyway, and we all ended up paying...and paying...and....
A few years later, I was able to not ride it when I needed to, because it would only get me to work, but not back.

If rail worked, we would still be riding streetcars.

[breakem]

A few years later, I was able to not ride it when I needed to, because it would only get me to work, but not back.

Could you explain this a little. How did it get you there and not back?

[ApplegateRanch]

My work schedule; I could take a train in, but the last train had already left when I got off work. Many if us had staggered schedules back then, to space out the rush hour traffic. As a techie, the lab started late, and got off late.

Similarly, when I took some night college classes in the 70s in Riverside, CA the busses arrived at campus either 45 minutes before, or 15 minutes after classes started; and the last bus ran 25 minutes before classes let out.

In Medford, OR anyone shopping at Rogue Valley Mall had no problem M-F; nor too much of a problem on Saturdays. However, workers were faced with being able to arrive on time, but the last buses left about five minutes after official closing, meaning SHOPPERS could take them, but workers were still counting cash, locking up, etc.

[breakem]

we went to Paris soon after 9-11. We never waited longer than 2 minutes for a Metro train and that was at 11:45 at night.

[ApplegateRanch]

Ah, Paris. Public transport is different there, all right.
I should explain further. Had I LIVED in San Francisco, it would have been no problem. I lived in the East Bay, and it was about 35-40 miles each way.

Riverside was about 150,000 population when I was there. Medford, about 80,000.

Now, I'm in a town of 3,800, with one taxi cab.

[breakem]

I keep waiting for BART to do a SF-Sacramento-Stockton triangle.

[Jeff Gordon]

The railroad nuts have a one track mind.