Posted on 10/28/2023 5:52:20 AM PDT by george76
The city of San Francisco is in the process of constructing a downtown-area railroad extension that is estimated to cost in excess of $4 billion per mile of tunnel, The San Francisco Standard reported.
The extension, known as The Portal, is a tunneled rail service that would connect the Salesforce Transit Center in the city’s downtown corridor to Caltrain and future high-speed trains, according to the Standard. The project’s overall cost estimate was recently revised up from $6.5 billion to a total of $8.25 billion, which makes for a per-mile cost of over $4 billion,
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“[Y]ou’re seeing some whopping projected cost increases, not just for The Portal, but for other projects in the Bay Area,” John Goodwin, a spokesperson for the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which will operate the service, told the Standard.
Lily Madjus Wu, a spokesperson for the public utility company Transbay Joint Powers Authority, that will construct The Portal told the Standard that the U.S. government has been petitioned to fund half the project’s cost.
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Only San Francisco could manage *$6.8 billion per mile* rail extension between two stations.
This city is run by children.
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In New York City, new tunneling for Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway lines has cost between $1.5 and $3.5 billion per mile, The New York Times reported, which is, itself, seven times the average cost of subway construction in metropolitan areas around the world.
The MTC, meanwhile, has been selling merchandise about The Portal and engaging in public relations campaigns to promote its construction, according to the Standard.
The High-Speed Rail (HSR) project connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, which would be at one end of The Portal, has itself been widely criticized for construction delays and heavy cost overruns. Despite an initial budget of $33 billion in 2008, when it was first approved by ballot proposition, the cost is currently projected to reach $128 billion in total, with the first phase of the project, connecting Merced with Bakersfield, not expected to be ready until 2030.
The city of San Francisco, has well, as been widely criticized for high levels of homelessness and crime, public sanitation issues and open-air drug use. Many businesses have reportedly exited the city as a result.
Trains are a 19th century solution to 21st century transportation needs.
I’d be willing to bet once finished, it will be played with problems for the rest of its life from poor workmanship.
The cost of union worker voter bribery is massive.
$800,000 a foot
So they can issue free passes to homeless people who will ride all day to kill time.
Shuttlebus service would have been cheaper and more versatile.
The Rail extension is to facilitate people leaving
Frisco’s answer to the “Big Dig”.
There are buses from CalTrans to Salesforce.
Where’s the Fraud investigation ?
2 or 3 thousand years from now, when the history of this time is written people will have a hard time believing that this kind of stuff is happening, along with the social and cultural changes going on. Just like the Old Testament stories, skeptics will call these stories parables, but not believable.
Cost over-runs prohibit funds for investigation.
Had to have enough for Democrat graft ya know.
Can’t people just walk?
This is the price tag when you completely build out an urban area then later decide you want a do-over.
The Democrat-run city of San Francisco has been widely criticized for high levels of homelessness and crime, public sanitation issues and open-air drug use. Many high-profile, tax-paying businesses have exited the city as a result.
The High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, has been widely criticized for construction delays and heavy cost overruns......its initial budget of $33 billion in 2008, when it was first approved by ballot proposition....... the cost is currently projected to reach $128 billion in total, with the first phase of the project not expected to be ready until 2030.
Makes the “Big Dig” look like a bargain.
if this thing is actually built and assuming it’s ever completed, San Fran will be a hollowed out city with empty high rises, empty retail stores, and legions of bums and illegal aliens camping out on every sidewalk, parkway, park, and every other “public” surface ... basically, you’d be looking at a Soylent Green type of situation ...
I bet San Francisco feels dumb now for rejecting my bid of $3.8 billion per mile of tunnel. Heck, I even built in 10% for assorted bribes and “donations”.
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