This high-speed rail thing is kinda’ becoming a disaster for Jerry Brown

hotair ^ | JANUARY 7, 2014 | BY ERIKA JOHNSEN

[dennisw]

California’s ludicrously ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco has been besieged with all kinds of problems from almost the moment of its official conception, but let that not restrain California Democrats from doubling down on what they seem to view as their iliadic quest to make high-speed rail happen.

Back in August, a judge declared that the project had already violated the 2008 ballot initiative that first authorized the $10 billion in bonds for the 500-mile train, because the state didn't actually having funding sources on the books for the $31 billion required to build even just the 290-mile “initial segment” — not to mention that the oh-so-green state had flouted the necessary environmental clearances. Governor Jerry Brown deemed the judge’s ruling a mere “setback,” ho hum, but the project has since encountered still more judicial “setbacks”

Gov. Jerry Brown of California is riding into an election year on a wave of popularity and an upturn in the state’s fortunes. But a project that has become a personal crusade for him over the past two years — a 520-mile high-speed train line from Los Angeles to San Francisco — is in trouble, reeling from a court ruling that undermined its financing, and from slipping public support and opponents’ rising calls to shut it down. …

“It’s time for the governor to pull up the tracks,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, who is the majority whip in the House. “Everything he has said has not come to fruition. It’s time to scratch the project.” …

The ruling in November by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento blocked the state from using $8.6 billion in bond money to finance the first part of the train line,

[a fool in paradise]

The Obama Administration tried to strongarm Florida’s governor Rick Scott into building a high-speed rail project in this state a few years ago, to be funded by a state tax (which Florida doesn’t have)

They TRIED to ram a national high speed rail through that was center hubbed in Chicago (SUPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!). BILLIONS of dollars for friends of Obama.

Who knows how much money has already been spent on this or who got it.

[John O]

Thank you!

Brings back pleasant memories of talking trains with someone who was an apparently brain dead liberal :)

[pogo101]

All true. And travelling by Amtrak over long distances is expensive.

Want to go cross country? You are definitely going to need a sleeper car.

Costs a LOT.

You ain't kidding. I just checked out of curiosity. A sleeper car fare ONE WAY from LA to Seattle is $574. (In fairness, it would be the same price for two travelers sharing a 2-berth room. Also in fairness, meals are said to be included ... but what does that mean? The website doesn't explain "meals included.") Even that does NOT include one's own toilet or shower, which are "down the hall" and shared as in a boarding room. Remember "Midnight Run," "From Russia With Love" and "Silver Streak"? If memory serves, train rooms in those films were shown to include private bathrooms (tiny ones, sure), even on non-luxury trains. OK, Silver Streak was probably considered a first- or business-class train.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I have a fond memory of a discussion with ole Willie when he mentioned he took the train to Isle Royale National Park. As you may know, it’s an island in the middle of Lake Superior. I told him I never knew they built a train across Lake Superior...