High-Cost Rail - Part 158 Rubber-stamping the EIR

The Chronicle and the Daily Journal dutifully put the CHSRA Board's rubber-stamp of the EIR for the Central Valley to EssEff section of the "bullet train" on their front pages.  The Chron sub-headed "Despite win, major hurdles remain for project" and the DJ sub-headed Millbrae's pending legal action about a parcel of land near the station expansion.

Having your own Board "approve" your EIR is sort of like me approving the dinner reservation I just made.  The state legislature still hasn't had the courage to kill the beast as hoped back in May.  The Chron made some attempt to frame the challenges

Major hurdles to the project remain. For starters, California hasn’t figured out where it will get up to $25 billion needed to build the San Francisco and Silicon Valley bullet train extensions.   Democrats in the state Assembly, led by the powerful Los Angeles delegation, had pushed for years to take a chunk of the $4.2 billion in bond funds for the Central Valley line and instead spend it on regional transportation projects in major metro areas that could eventually connect with high-speed rail.

But that standoff ended in June, when the Rail Authority emerged with its bond funding intact, though its operations will be overseen by a new inspector general. Lawmakers also dropped a push to cut costs by using diesel-powered trains, rather than electrified track, in the Central Valley.  But the project has faced ridicule over repeated construction delays and soaring costs, with its total budget growing from $33 billion to at least $105 billion in the Rail Authority’s latest business plan — and potentially many billions more when the authority factors recent inflation into its estimates.

Trains were initially supposed to start running in 2020. Now, the agency doesn’t anticipate the first trains will start running in the Central Valley until 2029, followed by Silicon Valley in 2031.

Leave it to Quentin Kopp to summarize

Still, the project faces critics who say it’s drifted too far from the statewide system voters approved in 2008. Quentin Kopp, a retired state senator and former chairman of the Rail Authority Board, laughed at the idea of bullet trains running into downtown San Francisco.  “That’s called much ado about nothing,” he said. “This is destined for the graveyard of boondoggles now.”

I liked the Dilbert cartoon that ran in today's DJ--it's a fit with this non-news

  

Comments

[Jennifer Pfaff]

This one deserves its own post:

HSR Rail $100 B in the RED. Future ridership calculations have dropped by 25%, cost figures up to 128 B for the "full system", with a gap of $100 for politicians to ponder.

The CALMATTERS; R. Vartabedian article is reported by the SMDJ. The last few paragraphs are quite telling:

Kerstein (non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office):

"Absent very significant additional federal funds, the state will need to contribute additional funding (just) to get that segment from Merced to Bakersfield completed....The project failed to get the funding boost from the general fund when the state was flush with surplus tax receipts...now the state is struggling with a deficit and the likelihood of more to come; at the same time there are other priorities...It's going to be tough".

Notes UC law professor Elkins:

"Ultimately, the state will have to go back to the voters and ask for another bond issue if there is any hope to build the complete system. It's going to be harder to ask for more funding, which is why it's critical they finish this first (scaled down, 171-mile Merced to Bakersfield) segment."

[Joe]

Thanks, Jennifer. Done. Part 159 is up.