CA WANTS MORE FEDERAL MONEY TO POUR DOWN THE TOILET

by Bob Walsh

 

                  All we need is $2 billion more and then we'll get this thing to roll

 

The so-called CALIFORNIA HIGH-SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY is angling for another $2.1 billion to pour down the hole that is almost laughingly called High-Speed Rail.  

The project was approved by voters in 2008 with a $10 billion projected cost.  There were a number of performance benchmarks built into the ballot initiative that created the HSR Authority.  None of those benchmarks has ever been met.  Not one.  The feds have already supplied about $3.5B of the $9.3 billion already expended.  Not one rail of track is completed.  The right of way has not yet been fully purchased.  

 

                 Illinois / California bullet train all the same

The current semi-plan is to run the first link between Merced and Bakersfield, with stops in Fresno and Hanford.  I guess there is desperate need for high speed passenger rail service between Merced and Bakersfield that isn't obvious to the casual observer.