A LONG, SKINNY HOLE IN WHICH TO THROW MONEY

by Bob Walsh

 

A dream that's turned into a nightmare

Back in 1983 the voters of the formerly great state of California approved the creation of the High-Speed Rail Authority.  It was supposed to provide 200 mph train service between the S F Bay Area and Los Angeles.  A total of $33 billion was approved, via bond issues, for this project.  Interestingly enough performance benchmarks were built INTO the law, which was passed by initiative by the people,  NOT ONE of those benchmarks has been hit.  Lawsuits have been rebuffed by the courts, who  have thus far asserted that the project has not completely and totally turned to shit so it can proceed.

Earlier this week the HSR Authority announced that the bill is now up to $105 billion and that it will be higher before it is done, if it is done at all.  They have already acknowledged that the thing will not run at anywhere near 200 mph and that some of the stations may be out in the middle of butthole nowhere, cutting into the viability to some extent.  The authority still does not own all of the right-of-way, nor have the actual locations of stations been solidified.  There has been no significant actual track construction.  They are pretending to work on a section between Merced and Bakersfield, otherwise known as North Buttcrack and South Buttrack, in order to keep from repaying money the feds fronted them.  If this was a private enterprise the people running it would be in prison for fraud.

This has basically turned into a union construction project to further enable the Democrat-Socialist party, that essentially runs California, to extract more and more donation money from trade unions.