Construction begins on California bullet train

January 6, 2015

CA bullet trainState workers will begin construction Tuesday on the California high-speed rail project, which if completed, would link Los Angeles to San Francisco. [LA Times]

A groundbreaking ceremony on the $68 billion project will take place at the planned site of the downtown station in Fresno. Workers are then expected to begin building the first 29-mile stretch of rail, connecting Fresno to Madera.

Over the last two years, lawsuits against the project held up construction. The state won a series of court challenges and received a federal exemption from California environmental rules.

But, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has yet to secure even half of the funding needed for the project.

In 2008, California voters approved a $9 billion bond measure for the project. Since then, the Obama Administration committed $3.2 billion of grants, and the Legislature devoted 25 percent of future cap-and-trade revenues to the railway.

Cap-and-trade proceeds are expected to net the state $250 million to $1 billion annually. High-speed rail officials are also counting on money from private investors, as well as additional federal funds.

Rail officials must also purchase hundreds of parcels held by private landowners. The state, thus far, has only acquired 101 of the 526 parcels needed to build the first 29 miles.

Completion of the entire project is scheduled for 2028.


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Sweet! When the project goes belly-up the local Speeder Group will have somewhere to go closer to home…


Seems like those funds would have been better spent helping the homeless and those suffering from mental illness. That would have funded a tremendous number of shelters and vocational training facilities.


So, who is going to ride this train? I mean, who is REALLY going to?


travelling nurses.


This is a typical govt project. They will lie about the cost — it will cost triple ( or more ) what they are telling us now. It will take 2 to 3 times as long to complete. The excuses will be epic. The safety will be questionable. This is nothing but a unionized ‘make work’ project. It will never ever pay for itself — it will always require huge govt subsidies. Why ride this thing when one can fly in half the time? Scenic views of Fresno? This spectacular failure will be ‘moonbeams’ legacy. I really can’t believe people are stupid enough to fall for this.


25% of the funds from Cap and Trade. Your “global warming” tax dollars at work.


Don’t worry if the funds run short, the government can always invent a new crisis to grab some more money.


The Transcontinental Railroad cost $50,000,000 in 1860 dollars.


The Interstate Highway System cost $26 billion in 1956.


These were major outlays at the time, but no sane person or project planner today would dispute that they weren’t good investments that led to progress and better business.


We just have to ignore the defenders of the killer elite plutocrats that consider themselves ‘conservatives’.


You are comparing jerry’s train to nowhere with the Transcontinental Railroad and the Interstate Highway system? 2 of the 3 are useful. The other is a huge waste of money.


Plus they had no environmental impact reports and mitigations which would have killed their projects.


Heck I’m all for the bullet train if you waive the EIR, Army Corp, Fish and Game, Building and Water Board Permits. No OSHA, no prevailing wage, no unions. Use labor from out of the Country. Obtain easements without due process. No hearings, no conditions. Not funded by the state.


There were plenty of critics before both the TCR and the IHS were buitt that said they were pipe dreams and would be too expensive.


Same type that toes the line for the corporate power brokers now that don’t want competition. That’s all that the opposition and griping is about.


Yes the left are.

See for the left to sell their ideas they have to build false comparisons and all out lies…ala…Obamacare and Gruber! The American people are not smart enough to understand their genius, you see, so they have to lie about it for “our own good”. It’s how the left operates and Gruber told us all about it!


LOL. The fed is a good a thing?


By the time this thing is completed the government will be telling us it is time to start building molecular transporters


Japan, Germany, France, China, and other nations can have high-speed rail; but the US is too backwards or stupid to do so.


lol. their density is economically feasible.


LA Bay Area Portland Seattle Vancouver BC urban density connection


i hope ur joking. that has to be the dumbest thing i have ever heard.


But not the dumbest thing you ever thought.


Anyone who compares the Country of Germany to the USA relating to High Speed Rail…well…they don’t understand the talking point they are spewing. In other words….they are leftists….Bingo!


Well, it’ll never get finished even part way, but, I’m confused on some points…


Is it a $ 6,000,000,000 project (the bond), or

Is it a $ 68,000,000,000 project (the latest fallacious low gov’t estimate), or

Is it a $ 125,000,000,000 project (my SWAG based upon years of gov’t project over runs)


And as to terminology, is it a “boondoggle” or a “Browndoggle” ?


We will not have ANYTHING like the population density (and passivity) of Japan where such projects function at sensible ridership levels. Therefore, our first ever FOUR TERM governor must think he’s matching his father’s (successful) infrastructure accomplishment on the State Water Project. Wrong. Fail. Pipe Dream.


Where IS my airsickness bag?


Just more taxes being pissed away. They’ll eventually bleed us to death.


yes you’ll be dead so the taxes won’t really matter but your grandchildren will be able to take a train to Vegas or Beijing


Ha ha ha….

Can you believe the Idiocy of this project and who supports it?

The Left…


Jerry explains everything

http://www.c-span.org/video/?323581-1/california-state-state-address-inauguration-ceremony

the rail project is @ about twenty minutes


that nest of left-wing supporters and thinkers and planners involved.http://www.ushsr.com


you can tell they are left wing lunatics by the hats they wear http://www.ushsr.com/info/store.html


the head of the high speed rail Cabal has his office deep within ” Union”Station Washington DC


I don’t know, that man purse looks pretty inviting…


And the Republican mayor of Fresno


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