Michelle Malkin » California High Speed Rail Project Triples in Projected Cost, Won’t Be Ready for 22 Years

California High Speed Rail Project Triples in Projected Cost, Won’t Be Ready for 22 Years

By Doug Powers • November 1, 2011 09:02 AM

**Written by Doug Powers

In 2009, Joe Biden, the Conductor of the Train to the Future, gave California’s high speed rail proposal his full support. Subsequently, $2.25 billion of the money for California’s rail construction came from the federal stimulus — a drop in an ever expanding bucket as it turns out.

From Mercury News by way of JWF:

Faster than a speeding bullet train, the cost of the state’s massive high-speed rail project has zoomed to nearly $100 billion — triple the estimate given to voters and more than enough to run the entire state government for a year.

What’s more, bullet trains won’t be up and running until at least 2033, much later than the original estimate of 2020, although that depends on the state finding the remaining 90 percent of the funds needed to complete the plan.

The new figures come from a final business plan to be unveiled by the California High-Speed Rail Authority on Tuesday, though some of the details were leaked to the media, including this newspaper, on Monday. Officials at the rail authority did not respond to repeated requests for comment Monday.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday was expected to endorse the long-awaited plan, the first major update to the project in two years and the last before the federal deadline to begin construction next year. But state legislators, who were already skeptical, will tear through the plan starting Tuesday before deciding whether to start building, or to kill the project.

The new business plan pegs the price tag at $98.5 billion, accounting for inflation — more than double the estimate of $42.6 billion from two years ago, when it was already the priciest public works development in the nation. It’s a little less than triple the estimate of $33.6 billion voters were told when they approved the project in 2008.

If the projected cost of the California project has tripled just since 2008 and construction hasn’t even started yet, imagine what the cost will be by the time it’s finished — if the state (and country for that matter) hasn’t gone beyond bankrupt by then.

Politicians in other states have been offered federal money for high speed rail projects, run the numbers, and said “thanks, but no thanks.”

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

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Posted in: fiscal stimulus,Joe Biden,Politics

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#101

On November 1st, 2011 at 2:56 pm, FrankNitti said:

On November 1st, 2011 at 10:20 am, Ditkaca said:

A flight from LA to SF is approx. $150 round trip.

A quick calculation says that you could fly 146k people, back and forth, per day for 12 years for the price of that rail.

It is a steal!

Wow….just WOW
#102

On November 1st, 2011 at 3:01 pm, kentroyals5 said:

On November 1st, 2011 at 1:48 pm, buzdburd said:
As was pointed out earlier…
A HIGH-SPEED (chortle) rail line in earthquake-prone California. WHAT COULD GO WRONG??!!

Well if that is your argument. I guess nothing should be built in California. And nothing should be built in the mid-west where tornadoes occur. And the east coast? Well, hurricanes hit all up and down the coast. Nothing should be built there. Etc, etc.
#103

On November 1st, 2011 at 3:23 pm, spaceycakes said:

Nothing should be built there. Etc, etc.

soooo, we can change our beds into bunk beds?
#104

On November 1st, 2011 at 3:36 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

Ixnay on the ot-hay unking-bay!
#105

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:05 pm, swmntman said:

WIguy said: Is it just me or does ILMC seem to have a wedgie up to his liver..

Yeah – the quality of his/her/its snarks have gone way down hill lately. I have no idea how his/her/its comments relate to this train thing — it’s as if he/she/it is trying to derail the conversation…. OH!! I GET IT NOW!!
#106

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:21 pm, RyanInSanJose said:

I have the sudden urge to watch The Road Warrior.
#107

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:25 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

Narrator: …and the Road Warrior… He Lives now, only in my memories.
#108

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:34 pm, spaceycakes said:

hey; we don’t need another hero.
#109

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:44 pm, Southpaw said:

This project will never be completed. Period.
#110

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:45 pm, GaijinBob said:

I love the high speed rail system of civilized countries like Japan. You can take it almost anywhere you’d want to go and it connects to light rail systems that stop at everywhere you’d want to be. But compare and contrast to the L.A. light rail system. It goes almost nowhere you want to go and never when you want to go there. Try taking a metro train to a ballgame! It either doesn’t go there or doesn’t run late enough to take it home when the game is over. And forget about taking a train to a connecting flight from one airport to another. Yet it will be these same type of folks who will be in charge of planning the new rail system.

But it’s okay. It’s annual operating budget will be subsidized by the California herds of unicorns that poop gold bricks.
#111

On November 1st, 2011 at 4:53 pm, spaceycakes said:

But it’s okay. It’s annual operating budget will be subsidized by the California herds of unicorns that poop gold bricks.

but I want an unicorn now, Daddy!

(believe me, I’ve been told that I’m Veruca more than once…)
#112

On November 1st, 2011 at 6:44 pm, stuckinIL4now said:

High-speed? Hahahahahahaha … so to complete a system that is currently irrelevant and totally unnecessary to its constitutents, it’s going to take nearly an entire generation at which time it will be doubly past obsolete and the bill will be paid for by how many more generations beyond our children’s children’s children? I’ve got this sudden urge to queue up some Moody Blues right now …
#113

On November 1st, 2011 at 7:55 pm, prendad said:

Either the Federal Government, under the community organization of Barack Obama, is proving to be the most ignorant, stupid, grossly negligent administration in the history of the world, or else it is the most corrupt, sleazy, degenerate band of thieves ever to slime the executive and legislative halls of Washington with it’s greedy, crony, underhanded deceit. Maybe both?
#114

On November 1st, 2011 at 8:28 pm, in_awe said:

On November 1st, 2011 at 10:33 am, Truesoldier said:

Quick question. Does the latest cost projection include the 22 years of Union labor costs? If not you know the cost will become even more significant.

Yes. The governor just signed a law that says any project undertaken by any public body in CA must be under a TPA – with union wages, work conditions, and include union featherbedders to make sure that all the work conditions are met.

It is interesting that the best part of the article was eliminated for the on-line version of the article:

From the print version of the AP article:

“It calls for retaining the most controversial aspect of the proposal – starting construction in the Central Valley. Critics want to start in more populated areas in case money runs out before the full system is finished, which would leave a “train to nowhere”.

“But $3.5Billion in federal funding is contingent upon the Central Valley route, and construction must begin before October 2012, leaving little time for the studies and reviews required for starting elsewhere, the plan says.”

Nothing like “ready, fire, aim” when it comes to spending tax dollars for the estimated 100,000 union construction jobs.

The Dems in Congress insisted that the project start in the middle of nowhere because that would stop fiscal conservatives form stopping the project once billions had already been spent for a useless rail segment. In for a dime, in for $100 billion was the thought.

BTW – the way these goofballs came up with ridership estimates between 7.4 and 10.8 million passengers was by a small survey taken of existing inter-city train riders and extrapolating those results to the population at large. Brilliant enough to get CA taxpayers to approve $9 billion in special use bonds for this turkey.
#115

On November 2nd, 2011 at 12:24 am, Member-VRWC said:

2033 will be the year Moonbeam Brown starts revving up for the ’34 governor’s race. Who says the majority of voters in CA aren’t stupid enough to give him a 3rd bite at the apple? Like RocketDan, I bailed 8 years ago due to the rampant insanity and never looked back.
#116

On November 2nd, 2011 at 4:20 am, buzdburd said:

kentroyals5 said:
On November 1st, 2011 at 1:48 pm, buzdburd said:
As was pointed out earlier…
A HIGH-SPEED (chortle) rail line in earthquake-prone California. WHAT COULD GO WRONG??!!
Well if that is your argument. I guess nothing should be built in California. And nothing should be built in the mid-west where tornadoes occur. And the east coast? Well, hurricanes hit all up and down the coast. Nothing should be built there. Etc, etc.

I’m impressed KENT…
Nothing should be built ANYWHERE?
JEEEZZ!!
No one should live ANYWHERE??
This is simple physics.
There WILL be an earthquake in the California fault-line.
What happened in San Francisco in 1989?
I guess you weren’t watching the World Series at that moment.
I was. And it took them a decade to fix it!
I guess that airliners aren’t sufficient types of travel to take care of what is already needed to supplant the type of travel that is needed to accommodate the citizens of California and so the rest of the states need to pour there well unused tax dollars into an already over taxed state.

Send your money KENT!
Stop taking mine!!
#117

On November 2nd, 2011 at 4:34 am, buzdburd said:

how many more generations beyond our children’s children’s children? I’ve got this sudden urge to queue up some Moody Blues right now …how many more generations beyond our children’s children’s children? I’ve got this sudden urge to queue up some Moody Blues right now …

I am certain that I did see a giraffe playing daffodil