LAT Buries the Lede: Calif. Rail Authority Tried to Intimidate Consultants to Hide $1B Cost Overrun

NewsBusters ^ | May 11, 2014 | Tom Blumer

[george76]

The estimated cost of the initial segment of California's bullet train, Golden State Governor Jerry Brown's pet project, has (excuse the pun) just shot up from $6.19 billion to $7.13 billion. If this is the only overrun encountered in this opening phase, which would be atypical, and if the California High Speed Rail Authority has similar experiences on the remainder of the project, assuming it's ever completed, its cost will rise from a currently estimated $68 billion to about $78 billion.

Obviously a big cost overrun is news. But normally, evidence of an attempted government coverup of such an overrun is even bigger news. But not at the Los Angeles Times. The paper's Ralph Vartabedian kept it out of his headline and waited until his story's ninth paragraph to note it. Even then, his description was needlessly vague

[publius911]

In the unlikely event that our 100 Billion Dollar Con Job on the voters ever gets built and running...
... Nobody will ride it!

That's exactly what I predicted when San Francisco BART was proposed, designed and built, IF labor unions were allowed to become the tail that wags the dog.

Which is exactly what happened. The unions can paralyze the system any time it chooses. There are insufficient parking lots at the stations which, I think, were proposed to be free but which no longer are.

The only thing that makes the impossible possible is the artificially high wages in San Francisco, and the corresponding sky high cost of living, primarily housing.

And the uncontrolled wages for this other welfare program, BART, are obscenely high. No secret, the wages are posted on line.

[M-cubed]

Back in the day, newspapers competed fiercely to find “scoop” that would reveal corruption and win them Pulitzers.<<

Today...a “scoop” that will destroy a democrap will get you blacklisted and an IRS audit....sad isnt it

[Carry_Okie]

Obviously a big cost overrun is news. But normally, evidence of an attempted government coverup of such an overrun is even bigger news. But not at the Los Angeles Times.

The legacy of the LAT in manipulating the real estate business in California is second only to the Southern Pacific Railroad.

[Carry_Okie]

So why do the socialist want to push trains as the mode of transportation for the future?

Farmland is flat and cheap, especially when you put the farmers out of business with water restrictions. Buy land along the corridor for "planned communities" as subsidized by carbon credits because of "no need for cars" and voila, a fat profit.

[dfwgator]

“Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.”

[HKMk23]

“The Brown Streak”

Annnd we have a WINNNAAAHHHH!!

[Carry_Okie]

Yup, all over again, writ large.

If you haven't seen it, there's a well documented book about this kind of corruption badly written by a disaffected but honest leftist journalist, Richard Trainor: Paradise Lost?: High-Speed Trains Get Waylaid, Shady Politicians Get Billions and Taxpayers Get the Shaft!

[HKMk23]

“So why do the socialist want to push trains as the mode of transportation for the future?”

[singing] Look for the union label...

These things are NEVER about getting people from one place to another; NOT *EVER*. They’re ALWAYS about pumping tax money into UNION pockets so it can be oh-so-dutifully regurgitated on demand into the coffers of the Democrat Party.