High-Cost Rail - Part 162 A boring discussion

The insane HSR money pit dig just continues on in the face of fiscal cliffs for local rail, potholes all over the state, unfunded grade separations and more taxes and bonds on the horizon.  This week the last section into LA got its environmental rubber stamp (the last one was two years ago) as noted in the Comicle:

California's bullet train project reached a major milestone: The entire 463-mile route from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now environmentally cleared for construction.  The High-Speed Rail Authority’s board signed off Thursday on a preferred route and environmental clearance for the 38-mile segment that would carry bullet trains from Palmdale to Burbank. It was the project’s last segment between San Francisco and Los Angeles that had yet to be cleared.

If you thought this has any effect on the overall fiscal disaster, there are a number of bridges for sale.  The Comicle reporter, Ricardo Cano, blithely repeats all of the PR missives from the Authority.  Here are a couple of the 

Bullet train service on the Central Valley segment — 171 miles from Bakersfield to Merced — is expected to start between 2030 and 2033, featuring four huge stations.  The project is $7 billion short of completing the Central Valley segment and needs $100 billion to finish the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

That will make for a lot of driving up and down I-5 to get to the four huge stations, but no worries--they won't be very busy.  And then

Connecting Merced to San Jose will require tunneling 15 miles of tracks through Pacheco Pass in the Diablo Range. The Palmdale-to-Burbank segment will necessitate boring 30 miles of tunnels that will run along State Route 14 and underneath the community of Acton, Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

The authority’s Board of Directors spent much of Thursday’s vote debating whether the mountainous segment and its tunnels would be able to withstand a major earthquake. Authority officials said they planned to present more details on the segment’s tunneling work early next year.

"We are fully engaged in planning to make a plan, but don't worry.  In our universe time isn't money and even if it was, we have plenty of it--we just don't know where it is at the moment."  BART is a certifiable mess.  Meanwhile Caltrain, with a mere 49 miles, is insolvent and in need of millions for grade separations, bridge repairs and whatever else we aren't being told about until it's an emergency that requires more taxes for "equity".

Comments

[Phinancier]

You guys will enjoy this article about the Euro high speed rail problems https://nypost.com/2024/08/11/opinion/dont-romanticize-europes-unreliable-high-speed-rail/

And don't forget how easy it was for a couple of bombers to take down a huge part of the network going into Paris.

[Jennifer Pfaff]

Oh boy...'sorry to read this. Back in the Day (Way Back) things were not so:(

[Joe]

John Horgan didn't go out on a limb too far in his column today, but he's on the mark. Couldn't have said it better myself:

TROUBLE FOR RAIL PROJECT: Regarding last week’s election, with Republicans poised to exercise control over key levers of the federal government beginning early next year, look for more taxpayers’ cash for California’s high-speed rail project to dry up.

The GOP has never been keen on continuing to finance this boondoggle. The last estimate made public by HSR authorities indicated that construction, both underway and projected into the future, was short at least $100 billion — and counting.

Furthermore, it was noted that, as the state’s population shrinks (due to aftereffects of the pandemic, high taxes, high housing costs and other negative factors), ridership projections for the rail system are being scaled back.

All in all, the outlook, again, is not rosy for this bloated white elephant that is supposed to one day whisk riders from San Francisco to Los Angeles is just over two hours. Good luck.
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You need to get the correct intonation on his last phrase. "Goooooood luck with thaaaaat".