YET ANOTHER COST JUMP IN JERRY'S TOY TRAIN

by Bob Walsh

The projected cost for Jerry's Toy Train, the pseudo-high-speed train from LA to SF, has jumped again by about 1/3.

The first phase of this massive boondoggle is now pegged at about $10.6 billion, up from about $7.8 billion. This would be for one section in the Central Valley, going from Nowhere to South Nowhere. This pushes the projected cost for the whole project from the initial $40 billion to $67 billion.

The current problem seems to stem from the High Speed Rail Authority letting contracts for construction before they actually owned the right-of-way. This was at least allegedly made necessary due to a drop-dead date on $2.5 billion in federal money.

The initial project was supposed to run from SF to LA in less than three hours by 2029, and eventually expand to Sacramento and San Diego. It is now conceed that the three hour figure is pie-in-the-sky. which is awkward as the performance requirements were written into the bond. Any sort of reasonable legal review of the project in its current state would conclude that the current status of the project is in violation of law.

That review is, of course, unlikely to happen with Democrats in charge of both houses of the legislature and all state constitutional offices.