High Cost Rail – Part 130 “Told ya so”

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High Cost Rail – Part 130 “Told ya so”

January 15, 2017

Check out this Mercury News headline

HSR Cost Overruns article

The Federal Railroad Administration is the author of the "confidential" report:

The federal agency is monitoring the California project because it has invested $3.5 billion in the first phase, through the Central Valley. Eventually those tracks will be extended to San Jose, according to the latest plan.

The analysis warned that the Central Valley track, 119 miles from Merced to Shafter, could be 50 percent over budget — and seven years behind schedule, according to the Times. The original budget was $6.4 billion, but costs could reach $10 billion, the Times reported.

This should not be a surprise to anyone given what is known about such projects (see Part 113 and Part 88). For me, the real kicker -or is it a kick in the taxpayers' teeth- is "labeled a 'confidential-draft deliberative document for internal use only". Any why, exactly, it that the case? This is one public agency supposedly auditing and making some predictions about the performance of another public agency. As far as I can see it does not address any forthcoming contract details nor does it make any individual personnel comments. So why is it confidential?

Lastly, can we just dispense with the fiction that this boondoggle will come in at $69 billion or even $96 billion? This is a 12 figure boondoggle for sure.

Posted in High Speed Rail, State Ievel issues

8 responses to “High Cost Rail – Part 130 “Told ya so””

Joe

January 18, 2017

Under the headline of “California’s Big Dig” yesterday Wall Street Journal echoes what this post says:
“Elaine Chao is rolling to confirmation as Transportation Secretary with little trouble. The same can’t be said of California’s beleaguered bullet train, and one of Ms. Chao’s first orders of business should be to cut the choo choo off federal life support.”
Here is one factoid I did not know
“Yet according to the FRA document, the rail authority still won’t meet its June deadline for spending stimulus funds. Merely 56% of the 1,606 parcels of land have been acquired for the first segment. ”
pat giorni

January 18, 2017

For the latest ….Play podcast Peter Tilden at 11:00–1/16/17
Interview begins @ 18:10
http://www.kabc.com/peter-tilden/
Bruce Dickinson

January 18, 2017

Folks, great news, nothing like a multi-millionaire (Chao) with no pay for play agenda to make the right economic decisions and cut off HSR at the knees, once and for all. Bruce Dickinson is liking these DJT cabinet picks more as they seem to be driven by a desire to serve rather than power trips or ways to use the “revolving door” to get rich. They’ve already achieved success many times over.
Bruce Dickinson is starting to like some aspects of the new Trumped-Up Trickle-Down Economics!
Jennifer

January 19, 2017

Thanks Pat for the heads up on that kabc Flashman interview about HSR, very interesting.
Ian

January 20, 2017

Right – no revolving door for Ms Chao, who gets a special waiver from Wells Fargo allowing her to cash in her deferred stock options because she’s leaving for government service. Probably has absolutely nothing to do with Wells Fargo’s interest in cashing in on infrastructure public-private partnerships…
Joe

January 21, 2017

I’m more than happy to make a gentlemen’s bet that Wells Fargo doesn’t put up a dime for HSR in California.
Joe

February 12, 2017

Anyone care to bet that Gov. Brown could even find Oroville on a map? Why not blow $100B on high-speed rail when a few reservoirs and dams could be fixed and desalinization could start in California?
—————
As Oroville Dam operators worked into the night Sunday to try to prevent collapse of the emergency spillway, independent engineering experts said the state has few options at its disposal.
The collapse of the emergency spillway likely would cause catastrophic flooding along the entire Highway 70 corridor, inundating Oroville, Marysville and much of Sutter County, top engineering and flood-control experts said late Sunday.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article132360534#storylink=cpy
Laura

February 13, 2017

That’s the sad part Joe. Instead of throwing billions into a train no one wants but Gov Brown,we could of been shoring up our dams and infrastructure. Now thousands could be flooded out of their homes and businesses because our Governor wanted a train.

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