CA NOT-SO-HIGH-SPEED-RAIL WANTS ANOTHER $100 BILLION

By Bob Walsh

 

 

With apologies to Charles Dickens, MORE is getting to be really tiring.  The so-called California High-Speed-Rail Authority now wants yet another $100 billion with which they claim they will maybe-probably-possibly be able to complete the no longer high speed rail link between SF and LA in maybe-possibly ten years, if the wind is blowing in the right direction.

The performance requirements were written into the ballot initiative that created the HSR Authority.  The project has met NONE of those benchmarks, but the courts have rebuffed lawsuits to shut down the project on that basis.  The costs have gone up massively, the promised performance of the trains has been downgraded significantly and still the project lumbers on, consuming massive amount of money.  The only thing it is doing for sure is disrupting a lot of central valley agriculture and creating a lot of union construction jobs, something that Gavin (God I Want To Be President) Newsom dearly loves.

It has gotten so bad even some of the Democrat-Socialist members of the state legislature are starting to back away from this boondoggle.  

The HSR Authority is now even fishing for private money to help fund the gold-plated toilet that is HSR.  

We should hear in a few weeks if the current rendition of standing in line with the bowl in hand and a pitiful look on the face asking for MORE is going to work.