California bullet train blasts through budget projections

Typical Los Angeles traffic jam.
Instead of building a statewide high speed rail that no one will ride, that money should have built urban rail systems to get cars off the freeways.

Not even started yet, and already $3.6 billion over budget and seven years behind schedule

(Legal Insurraction)  -  I have chronicled the saga of the California bullet train and its construction since 2012.

• California’s bond dreams become High Speed fiscal nightmare
• California Judge’s Ruling May Save State from Bullet Train
• California Voters Want More Water and Less Bullet Train

A report obtained by The Los Angeles Times confirms my concerns about the project’s fiscal drain on our state. The review shows that this monstrosity will cost $3.6 billion more than original budget projection.

A confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis, obtained by The Times, projects that building bridges, viaducts, trenches and track from Merced to Shafter, just north of Bakersfield, could cost $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared with the original budget of $6.4 billion. 

The federal document outlines far-reaching management problems: significant delays in environmental planning, lags in processing invoices for federal grants and continuing failures to acquire needed property. 

The California High-Speed Rail Authority originally anticipated completing the Central Valley track by this year, but the federal risk analysis estimates that that won’t happen until 2024, placing the project seven years behind schedule.

Even more disturbing is that the estimated overrun is merely for the easiest leg of the track to be constructed. I shudder to think about how many more taxpayer dollars will be squandered to build the entire system.

Officials overseeing this project are quick to dismiss the report:

The rail authority’s chief executive, Jeff Morales, insisted to the Times that the project would cost less than the feds projected. 

“The point of doing this analysis is to identify the challenges and work through them,” he said. “They are not conclusions and not findings.”

G

Read More . . . .

Los Angeles had the finest public transportation system in the world
until the government tore it out in order to spend money on buses.

The Los Angeles Red Car Rail System Built in 1901.
.
Government Insanity
#1)  First you build an extensive light rail system.
#2)  Then you tear down that extensive light rail system.
#3)  Now you raise taxes to build another rail system
to replace the light rail system you just tore down.
.
Yes, the Government is run by idiots.

Pacific Electric had over 500 miles of inter urban track in Los Angeles in the early 1900's. The image shows the "Red Cars" stacked for sinking in Los Angeles Harbor - sunk ostensibly for "fish habitat", but really sunk for General Motors Corporation profit.