California high‑speed rail project now estimated to cost $126 billion

[MeganC]

An EXCERPT from KTLA:  https://ktla.com/news/california/california-high-speed-rail-rising-costs/

The estimated cost of California’s long‑troubled high‑speed rail project has soared past $120 billion.

In a 60 Minutes report on CBS News, officials said they now believe the rail line linking Los Angeles and San Francisco could ultimately cost about $126 billion, roughly triple the original price tag approved by voters in 2008, when the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimated it would cost $45 billion.

Politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have stated that voters initially approved $33 billion for the project.

State officials say the earliest projected opening for the first phase, running from Kern County to Merced, has slipped to 2033, as funding gaps, construction delays and ongoing political battles continue to threaten the project’s future.

Last year, the Trump administration pulled $4 million in federal funding from the rail effort. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy dismissed the project as “a ridiculous train to nowhere.”

[MeganC]

Leave it to California to utterly clustermuck this project! 

Had the San Joaquin Valley section been built on the initially proposed route along the right of way for Interstate Five it would have been done by now. The state already owned the land and it's also a more direct route between LA and SF.

Instead the Democrats gerrymandered the route and a bunch of them bought land in the path of the line so they could rape the taxpayers and line their pockets with overpayments for worthless land.

Bottom line is the people of California may have voted for a rail line but the Democrats turned it into a grift and they are making BILLIONS from this one!

[DefiantMassRINO]

Spend $126 Billion on a high-speed rail the length of the San Andreas Fault?  What could possibly go wrong?

Are there even enough customers to justify its construction and operation?

[MeganC]

Spend $126 Billion on a high-speed rail the length of the San Andreas Fault?  What could possibly go wrong?

The proposed line crosses the San Andreas fault but does not follow it.

Are there even enough customers to justify its construction and operation?

At this point? No. The original cost and ridership projections have been found to be illusory. Moreover the originally proposed time for the LA to SF trip was under two hours. Something eminently possible with an express train running +220mph over the 382 mile distance of the originally planned route.

Now it looks like more than four and even five hours for this trip with eight or more stops along the way. Ticket prices will be higher than taking a plane.

It will be just as fast to drive directly between the two cities on US 101.

Flying portal to portal, even with TSA slowdowns, will be three hours or less.

In short, high speed rail is a wonderful idea and maybe it might get done someday. But this project is not "high speed" and so far it isn't even "rail".