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California’s high-speed train-to-nowhere project has long been infamous for very good reasons.
In 2008, California voters approved $9.95 billion of state bond funding as seed money to build an 800-mile high-speed rail (HSR) network connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the Central Valley to coastal cities, at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour, with an expected completion date of 2020.
But now, 15 years after the bond issue, three years after the expected completion date, not one train has left the station. Not one route has been completed, even though nearly all the $9.95 billion seed money has been spent. And the original budget of about $33 billion for the entire 800-mile system is now inadequate to build just one route (Bakersfield to Merced), whose cost pencils out to $207 million per mile—a cost that will almost certainly rise in the future, and for a route that may not be ready for ten years. Or more. Or perhaps ever.
The current estimated budget for the system is $128 billion.
How shamelessly corrupt do you have to be to throw any money at this? Ask Biden.
The federal government awarded California’s High-Speed Rail project a $202 million grant that will go toward finishing construction of the bullet train’s Central Valley segment from Merced to Bakersfield.
What are they actually paying for?
The $202 million grant will fund six grade separations in Shafter, a small Kern County town northwest of Bakersfield, that will separate car traffic from high-speed rail. Construction of these grade separations will begin in August 2025 with a three-year completion estimate, according to the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority.
Is there one good reason why everyone involved in this should not be going to prison?
But the good news is that Biden will shove $200 million stolen out of the mouths of struggling American families at this corrupt boondoggle.
Funny, I can’t remember but I think I voted against it at the time.I do remember I didn’t think much of the idea, but I thought maybe the powers that be knew something that I didn’t. As time went by the idea started looking worse and worse. Why take that train when you can fly to LA in an hour? But now the idea looks dreadful, absurd, insane. Thanks Daniel!!!
What we really need is more dams and reservoirs, to increase the water supply. Could have built a lot of those with the moola wasted on the train. Instead even the moola for new dams is instead being spent on tearing down existing dams, using various excuses, like saving the lizards, or appeasing phony Indian organizations.
They don’t want dams or any kind of decent water retention (except toilet water), the whole point of the environmental movement is to dismantle human industry and make everyone miserable.
We could use a few more aqueducts, too.
Definitely, I always think about that. The Romans could do it, why can’t we?
$200 Million here….$200 Million there………Meh.
I don’t think $202 million dollars is going to do very much for a $128 Billion dollar rail project. Maybe build a snack stand and if people keep leaving that state, who will ride the thing.
It’ll keep the scam going while the overall estimate balloons to $200 billion.
Nah, Daniel, government estimates are usually off by a factor of 10 or more, so this will end up costing at least $330 billion, whether or not it’s ever finished. My boss gets rightly angry if I’m off by a factor of 1.5.
Maybe they could change direction of the invisible train to Texas.
Say what you want about Democrats, but they’re “thick as thieves”…because that’s truly who they are. There’s never been a group more willing to throw away other people’s money while, at the same time, watching those same people suffer under the weight of their decisions and edicts. Just as Senator Menendez.
Isn’t that Biden’s solution to every issue – throw money at it. He’s a lying dog faced one-trick pony soldier.
Biden is just like any Liberal Democrat throws away our tax money on wasteful projects like the Train to Nowhere land
Because one can never get from Merced to Bakersfield fast enough. Total waste of money.
lol … good one 🙂
Keep in mind that for “cost-saving” reasons, many of the miles of this HSR are on AMTRAK track not rated at over 65 mph. If you know the cities this monstrosity connects, you understand that this is a normal-speed train from where no one lives to where no one works, for a few hundred billion $ of wasted taxpayer money. EVEYONE involved in the decision and funding processes should be in prison.
Self dealing cronyism is an industry onto itself, with bars to entry enabling gross profit margins impossible otherwise.
It is a “beak wetting” moment at the feed trough as the wages of loyalty, loyalty to the code of The Inside.
Israel completed a beautiful bullet train from Jerusalem to north of Tel Aviv including a stop at the Ben Gurion Airport. Israel under Netanyahu also completed bullet trains within metropolitan Tel Aviv this year. Now they will be building a bullet train from Qyriot Shimona on the Lebanese border through Eilat, where it will meet up with Arabian tracks to carry good through the UAE and Saudi Arabi.
When I was in Italy I flawlessly took bullet trains from Rome to Venice with a stop in between. I suggest California hire Israel or Italy to get the work done. Better yet, make Bibi Netanyahu the governor of California as well as running Israel.
Classic Railroad Songs Chatanooga Choo Choo, Orange Blossom Special Late Train to Clarksville, Wabash Cannonball City of New Orleans Etc. Now its the Pork Barrel Railroad to Nowhere
You forgot “Siver Streamline” and “Big Train to Memphis.”
Also “Midnight Train To Georgia,” and “Train, Train.”