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,
...
“[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.
....
Only San Francisco could manage *$6.8 billion per mile* rail extension between two stations.
This city is run by children.
...
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.
For that price they could buy ever city resident their own EV/SUV, and have money to spare.
And buying and operating a fleet of 737s would cost less than high speed rail.
Downtown is deadsville. No need for it.
That’s 40-million uber rides at $200 a pop
Don’t forget the soccer field that the mayor wants to turn some abandoned office buildings into.
Me and my boys would have brought it home at a cool 3.5bln/ mile, saved the tax sheep some cool bingo but sadly no one asked. 🤣🤣🤣
At least in the 19th century, you didn’t have to constantly step over bums and their excrement.
Tax the addicts.
10% for the Big Guys.
Bring back the trolls cars!
The way San Francisco is emptying out - at least of its workers and productive citizens - there won’t be anyone left to ride the $4 billion dollar per mile train.
Homeless will be allowed to ride it (for free, of course) as a form as shelter - which is how it works in Los Angeles.
Thing is, I don’t expect it to be finished in my life time so who knows? Re: California’s Highs Speed Rail - 15 years and not a mile of rail has been put down...
Tangentially, here’s a good opportunity to once again denounce my idiot fellow voters in CA who voted for the LA to SF high speed rail in 2008. $33B cost projected and completion of the system early in the 2030’s. Now cost estimates are $100B higher, and even those are a joke once purchase of urban right of way begins. Not one choo choo has run, though they’re hoping to have 171 miles in the middle of nowhere done by the end of this decade.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-11/new-cost-estimate-for-high-speed-rail-puts-california-bullet-train-100-billion-in-the-red
So, if my math is right, the budget for a couple of miles of tunnel/track in SF is roughly 1/4 of the original estimate for the entire LA-SF high-speed rail boondoggle.
But there is no grift or fraud going on anywhere folks. Move along. Nothing to see here.
So these ding dongs are paying over 4 billion per mile, when it really should only cost about 200 to 500 million per mile???
If the US government pays for half, as SF is requesting, nobody in the United States should pay any attention to any federal law or regulation ever again. #IrishDemocracy
Another trough to feed from
Ah, the Thornton Melon school of business. #GettingThingsDone
But avoiding the horse dookey was the name of the game.
Where did your “$200 to $500 million”‘figure something from? I always get suspicious when I see statements about how much something “should” cost.
Sorry — where did that cost range COME from?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.