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California's bullet train (and biggest boondoggle) is over budget by billions
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Leroy N. Soetoro
May 28, 2019, 5:37:05 PM5/28/19
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/californias-bullet-train-and-biggest-
boondoggle-is-over-budget-by-billions
It’s billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule, and
appears to have no plausible way of living up to its goal of getting
riders across the state in three hours or less.
Welcome to what’s arguably the nation’s largest infrastructure project and
California’s biggest boondoggle.
The highly hyped bullet train has been a challenge from the start. No one
thought it would be technically, financially and politically easy, but the
way the project has been mishandled has some Californians fed up and
demanding answers.
Just this week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the organization
charged with overseeing construction, reported that the cost of the first
segment had dramatically risen – again.
“The worst-case scenario has happened,” admitted Roy Hill, lead consultant
on the project.
Since its start, this hot-mess express of a project has been plagued by
delays and has blown through every single budget estimate imaginable. And
it’ll likely cost the state and taxpayers more in the coming months and
years.
Much more.
“The so-called bullet train is a solution in search of a problem that is
plagued by billions of dollars in cost overruns and fiscal mismanagement,”
San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey told Fox News. “The billions being
wasted on this boondoggle could have been invested in our current
infrastructure needs, such as water storage, flood control, highways and
bridges.”
This week’s updated cost estimate -- to complete just the first phase - a
119-mile segment in the Central Valley - has ballooned to $10.6 billion.
That’s a jaw-dropping 77 percent increase from initial estimates, 36
percent higher than forecasts from a year ago.
When California voters in 2008 narrowly approved $10 billion in bond as
seed money for the high-speed rail development, they were told the total
cost would be about $43 billion.
Fresh estimates put it now at $67 billion.
Brian Kelly, head of the State Transportation Agency, was appointed this
week to run the High-Speed Rail Authority. He told The New York Times that
even though the project has “mammoth opposition,” he has “never seen a
single project that would have such a transformative impact as this one.”
Other supporters reason that the project should continue because billions
of dollars have already been spent.
Critics, however, say the state should cut its losses and call it a day.
“The money is already wasted. There’s no way to unwaste it,” James Moore,
director of the transportation engineering program at the University of
Southern California, told Fox News.
He added that Californians have only “scratched the surface” when it comes
to expenses, and said that estimates were “overtly deceptive.”
He described ridership forecasts as “fictional” and said the idea behind
the state bullet train lacks logic.
“If you build a mode that is slower than an aircraft and costlier than
gas, people aren’t going to ride it,” he said.
Kersey agrees.
“It’s far from certain that Californians would even utilize the proposed
high-speed rail given the ease of air travel among California’s major
cities,” he said. “It’s so easy to get in an airplane and fly anywhere you
want to, (to) any of the big cities around the state.”
He also said that by the time the train is up and running – sometime
around 2025 - it will be outdated.
“The ‘high-speed’ rail debacle is the technology of yesteryear and has no
feasible plan for success,” he said, adding that Californians shouldn’t be
forced to foot the bill for “pet projects for politicians.”
The four leading Democratic candidates for governor in California have
offered various levels of support for the rail project.
The Los Angeles Times says current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom -- the
frontrunner in the gubernatorial race -- has dodged repeated requests for
interviews on the bullet train for more than two years.
Newsom’s office also did not return multiple calls from Fox News seeking
comment.
“This reticence to speak about a deeply troubled project might seem like
smart political strategy, given its support by the governor and
construction trade unions, a valued Democratic constituency,” The San
Diego Union-Tribune wrote in a scathing editorial. “If the Democratic
candidates don’t detail how they would salvage the most expensive public
project in California history, there’s a better adjective: cowardly.”
Last February, California’s House asked the administration to block a
pending federal grant until an audit of the project’s finances is
completed.
The letter was signed by all 14 members of the state’s Republican
delegation and was sent to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
As of now, there's been no movement on the request.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
boondoggle-is-over-budget-by-billions
It’s billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule, and
appears to have no plausible way of living up to its goal of getting
riders across the state in three hours or less.
Welcome to what’s arguably the nation’s largest infrastructure project and
California’s biggest boondoggle.
The highly hyped bullet train has been a challenge from the start. No one
thought it would be technically, financially and politically easy, but the
way the project has been mishandled has some Californians fed up and
demanding answers.
Just this week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the organization
charged with overseeing construction, reported that the cost of the first
segment had dramatically risen – again.
“The worst-case scenario has happened,” admitted Roy Hill, lead consultant
on the project.
Since its start, this hot-mess express of a project has been plagued by
delays and has blown through every single budget estimate imaginable. And
it’ll likely cost the state and taxpayers more in the coming months and
years.
Much more.
“The so-called bullet train is a solution in search of a problem that is
plagued by billions of dollars in cost overruns and fiscal mismanagement,”
San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey told Fox News. “The billions being
wasted on this boondoggle could have been invested in our current
infrastructure needs, such as water storage, flood control, highways and
bridges.”
This week’s updated cost estimate -- to complete just the first phase - a
119-mile segment in the Central Valley - has ballooned to $10.6 billion.
That’s a jaw-dropping 77 percent increase from initial estimates, 36
percent higher than forecasts from a year ago.
When California voters in 2008 narrowly approved $10 billion in bond as
seed money for the high-speed rail development, they were told the total
cost would be about $43 billion.
Fresh estimates put it now at $67 billion.
Brian Kelly, head of the State Transportation Agency, was appointed this
week to run the High-Speed Rail Authority. He told The New York Times that
even though the project has “mammoth opposition,” he has “never seen a
single project that would have such a transformative impact as this one.”
Other supporters reason that the project should continue because billions
of dollars have already been spent.
Critics, however, say the state should cut its losses and call it a day.
“The money is already wasted. There’s no way to unwaste it,” James Moore,
director of the transportation engineering program at the University of
Southern California, told Fox News.
He added that Californians have only “scratched the surface” when it comes
to expenses, and said that estimates were “overtly deceptive.”
He described ridership forecasts as “fictional” and said the idea behind
the state bullet train lacks logic.
“If you build a mode that is slower than an aircraft and costlier than
gas, people aren’t going to ride it,” he said.
Kersey agrees.
“It’s far from certain that Californians would even utilize the proposed
high-speed rail given the ease of air travel among California’s major
cities,” he said. “It’s so easy to get in an airplane and fly anywhere you
want to, (to) any of the big cities around the state.”
He also said that by the time the train is up and running – sometime
around 2025 - it will be outdated.
“The ‘high-speed’ rail debacle is the technology of yesteryear and has no
feasible plan for success,” he said, adding that Californians shouldn’t be
forced to foot the bill for “pet projects for politicians.”
The four leading Democratic candidates for governor in California have
offered various levels of support for the rail project.
The Los Angeles Times says current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom -- the
frontrunner in the gubernatorial race -- has dodged repeated requests for
interviews on the bullet train for more than two years.
Newsom’s office also did not return multiple calls from Fox News seeking
comment.
“This reticence to speak about a deeply troubled project might seem like
smart political strategy, given its support by the governor and
construction trade unions, a valued Democratic constituency,” The San
Diego Union-Tribune wrote in a scathing editorial. “If the Democratic
candidates don’t detail how they would salvage the most expensive public
project in California history, there’s a better adjective: cowardly.”
Last February, California’s House asked the administration to block a
pending federal grant until an audit of the project’s finances is
completed.
The letter was signed by all 14 members of the state’s Republican
delegation and was sent to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
As of now, there's been no movement on the request.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
Byker
May 28, 2019, 8:13:35 PM5/28/19
to
"Leroy N. Soetoro" wrote in message
news:XnsAA5D94B357...@202.81.252.44...
>
> https://www.foxnews.com/politics/californias-bullet-train-and-biggest-boondoggle-is-over-budget-by-billions
https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ap_18016784228002.jpg?w=893
https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/highspeedphoto02.jpg?w=824
news:XnsAA5D94B357...@202.81.252.44...
>
> https://www.foxnews.com/politics/californias-bullet-train-and-biggest-boondoggle-is-over-budget-by-billions
>
> It’s billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule, and
> appears to have no plausible way of living up to its goal of getting
> riders across the state in three hours or less.
>
> Welcome to what’s arguably the nation’s largest infrastructure project and
> California’s biggest boondoggle.
>
> The highly-hyped bullet train has been a challenge from the start. No one
> It’s billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule, and
> appears to have no plausible way of living up to its goal of getting
> riders across the state in three hours or less.
>
> Welcome to what’s arguably the nation’s largest infrastructure project and
> California’s biggest boondoggle.
>
> thought it would be technically, financially and politically easy, but the
> way the project has been mishandled has some Californians fed up and
> demanding answers.
Maybe they can pass it off as a 21st-Century Stonehenge:
> way the project has been mishandled has some Californians fed up and
> demanding answers.
https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ap_18016784228002.jpg?w=893
https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/highspeedphoto02.jpg?w=824
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