Posted on 05/23/2016 7:17:17 AM PDT by rktman
The incredible journey of California's high speed rail took another hit this past week when authorities inked a contract revision pushing back the opening of the first segment of the line from 2018 to 2022.
Project costs for this one, 119 mile stretch of track through the relatively empty Central Valley have topped $69 billion, with only a fraction of those funds appropriated. The high speed rail authority has only purchased half the land necessary to complete the first leg of the project and not a single foot of track has been laid.
The feds are blaming opponents of the project, citing lawsuits and other nuisances. But in fact, the project began with no vision about how it would be funded or built.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
” not a single foot of track has been laid.”
This is the GOOD news. It means there may be hope for stopping this most stupid of stupidicisms.
Mark my words: Texas will complete its high speed rail line from Dallas to Houston, all with private funding, before California even starts testing.
Project costs for this one, 119 mile stretch of track through the relatively empty Central Valley have topped $69 billion …That is $580 million per mile. $110K per foot. You have done well, Darth Moonbeam.
FOLLOW THE $$$$$!!!
“This is the GOOD news. It means there may be hope for stopping this most stupid of stupidicisms.”
But not before the money is stolen by Democrat donating crony businesses, which ultimately is the real reason that this white elephant was passed in the first place.
It never mattered whether or not the high speed rail actually gets built.
It’s just a way to funnel huge amounts of taxpayer money into Democrat pockets.
LA to Vegas makes far more sense to me anyway than the LA to SF route. What the heck is the need to go through the central Valley?
On the other hand, if you went to Vegas first and preserved the Central Valley route you would be half way or more to the valley and have a sense of how it would work with a paying route to Vegas first.
The whole project should be OBE anyway with the tube project that promises what, 700mph. CA has more money than good sense except in this case their dreams are mythical reality before the money has been appropriated from the people.
The “tube project” that’s more imaginary?
Construction may be stopped, but the expenses continue and the politically-favored consultants and contractors will continue to rake in big bucks from taxpayers until this stupidity dies.
“Project costs for this one, 119 mile stretch of track through the relatively empty Central Valley have topped $69 billion, with only a fraction of those funds appropriated. The high speed rail authority has only purchased half the land necessary to complete the first leg “
I mean, this is an exercise in imagining large numbers. For those who do not know, the Central Valley of CA is not Los Angeles or San Francisco. It is more like Kansas. It is for the most part vast farmland, good farmland, as long as there is water for irrigation...which is no certainty. But it is empty land, 97% of it.
So, never mind that ALL projects in CA are required to underestimate their build costs by at least 60%....
This 119 miles is far and away the easiest segment of this project to acquire land for and build. The segment over the Teton pass north of LA being costlier and the segments within and thru LA or SF metro being astronomically freaking more expensive to acquire ROW and build (Central Valley segment should require some bridges for sure, but nothing like the bridge & tunnel engineering that will be required in more urban areas.
So if this 119 mile segment is $69 billion @ roughly 30% of the total line length then the whole thing will be 10/3rds that, or $230 billion and that is perforce underestimated by 60%, then the whole project cost can be estimated at 10/4 * $230 billion or $575 billion. Except I am not accounting for the higher cost of buying ROW in SF and LA over the cheapest land in CA other than the desert.
Anyone who thinks this is not a trillon dollar project, Jerry, is a flaming idiot.
Most likely they found some endangered species of the spiked nosed Californian horn beetle.
100%
Meanwhile —
A wall on our southrtn border? A wall? Hmmmmmmmm. Too complex. Too difficult. We couldn’t manage it. And at a cost of $2000 Per foot, its far too expensive!!!!
Well said, and the correct comparison.
The folks who pushed this are most of the same folks who didn’t want to open up drilling in 2008 because it would take ten years to get the oil.
The Wall benefits everyone in America.
The High speed rail project benefits the well connected.
Which to build?
Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOEZ
WWSFNND ???
What will San Fran Nan Nan do ???
Especially since the Swiss are about to complete the longest (39.7 miles) deepest (7,900 feet) railroad tunnel in the world at a total cost of $16 billion. Just astonishing levels of waste in commiefornia.
And another salty tear falls into Willie Green’s beer.
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