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Bullet train planning costs more

April 3, 2013

bullet trainPlanning for California’s high-speed rail system will be more expensive than originally thought, officials said Tuesday. (San Jose Mercury News)

It will cost taxpayers $97 million more for “office and field work” in the design of the so-called bullet train. That news comes as controversy swirls around the project’s total anticipated cost, which has risen dramatically since voters’ approval in 2008, to $69 million.

According to officials, the extra planning costs are due to delays and financing alternative studies for communities along the train’s right-of-way. Highly-paid design consulting firms and added project staff will receive most of the additional funding.

The bullet train project already has an unfunded liability of more than $50 billion. Construction for the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco rail lines set to start in July, with its first stretch a 29-mile route between Madera and Bakersfield.


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We should already know how well that government manages trains. Amtrak has been government subsidized since it’s inception in 1972. I say can this whole high speed train idea and return the bond money. If someone wants to build a train, let them do it, but not with my taxpayer money!

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/amtrak-subsidies-is-no-way-run-railroad


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Amtrak is WORSE than government managed. Like the post office, they are left to their own devices, but government oversees their rules for hiring, scheduling, pricing, etc. So it’s like Fascism in that private people can own and operate, as long as it’s exactly as the government tells them how to.


Tell them what they can make, how much they can sell it for, and who they can sell it to… and what they must pay their workers and how many hours they can/cannot work. Great system.


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Why does it not surprise me that there are cost over-runs already before the first bit of construction is underway? Could it be that supporters grossly under-estimated the costs to make the original bill more appealing to voters.


Also, when someone can show me the “25-mile between Madera and Bakersfield,” I will start driving to Bakersfield first on my way to Fresno and points north in the Central Valley.


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I never seem to run across the voters that elected Adam hill, Bruce Gibson, and voted for this so called high speed train, I’d like to meet some of these people to see what makes them tick.

Who in their right mind would vote to put this rail project together, if people lived in the south but worked in the north, guess what they should move there not stick the rest of the taxpayers with this ill concieved set up.


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The only high speed train that makes sense is Los Angeles to Las Vegas. All other routes would be a waste of billions of dollars.


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Fast forward to the future when these rusting graffitti covered hulks adorn the sabotaged tracks.


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