From the LA Times
Cost overruns hit California bullet train again amid a new financial crunch (msn.com)
And the billion is just for the “easy” part of the line in the Central Valley, &diety knows what the complete line will cost
Will someone please put it out of its misery and kill it?
The article says that unforseen needed changes caused the cost overruns. Other countries had big problems building their first HSR.
When you take on a ‘big’ project you have no idea of the situation that construction of the project may run into - AND HAVE TO BE SOLVED. Mother Nature throws sliders, curves and knuckleball at the engineer that envision, spec and design the big projects - if you are going to make it in the world of big projects you have to hit each problem as it presents itself out of the park.
Some posters (who don’t like government or HSR) seem to think cost overruns are unusual. One word: Pentagon.
I doubt there’s anyone here who thinks there’s any excuse for those either.
It’s easy, far too easy, to be a spendthrift when it’s someone else’s money you’re playing with.
I remember reading a few years ago about a long-serving congressman, it doesn’t matter who or what party he belonged to, who was one of the biggest spenders of the people’s money raising holy hell with a contractor over the cost of replacing the roof of his Georgetown home. When it was his OWN money…
So, after winessing years of malfeasance, was quick to recognize it when it struck close to home?
Let’s hope that other states learn a similar lesson from California’s HSR woes.
Show me a politician that leaves office poorer than he entered office and it will be the first ‘honest’ politician that has existed in the existence of mankind.
The California HSR is an infrastructure program. First seed money by the Obama admin “TARP”. Second seed money by the “Biden likes trains” infrastructure plan.
Let’s create jobs then worry about the fare box later logic…surprised Newsome didn’t dictate that it be solar powered to boot…
It may be wrong to assign all the blame to politicians. Didn’t we just see at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia that the contractors solicited the bribes and submitted the inflated invoices? Why aren’t folks angry at the contractors for cost overruns? Is it because we don’t know their names but instead know the names of politicians?
If we follow the logic of some here, California should simply shut down the HSR project and walk away from it because of the cost overruns. Imagine how much money has been sunk into engineering studies, EPA reports, and such for a number of years. How many millions is that? All for nothing, apparently.
Plus, walking away is no answer. What is California supposed to do to move ever-greater numbers of people in the future? What would be the cost in dollars and political capital to add another 10 lanes to the exisiting Interstates and freeways? I can’t imagine the price tag or the angst-NIMBY reaction being much less than it already is. Build more airports in the Bay area or near Los Angeles? Not very likely.
Google informs us that it cost approximately $104 million to build the Transcontinental railroad; I believe there were some cost overruns involved in that project, too. Think what has been, and will continue to be the value of that permanent improvement & investment to California and the nation?
Anyone tempted to think California’s growth is over and that HSR, more freeways or something won’t be needed in the future is making a huge bet against the Golden State. No one ever got rich betting against California.
Good analogy!! I believe there was a healthy share of intentional misdealing on Mr Crocker and Mr Durant’s accounts.
Going from $40 billion to over $100 billion (and counting) is a little more serious than just “cost overruns”.
Anaheim to San Francisco was supposed to have trains running by 2029. Right now, politicians are saying 2033, with engineering firms laughing at that.
The problems are too many to list here.
This has turned into a modern “Big Dig” project. But probably no one really doubted that tunnel woudn’t be completed. There is some doubt that this HSR might never be completed as originally visualized.
If it isn’t completed as proposed in 20 years then there is the possibility that CA can’t wait and has to do something else–or even the travel technology will have changed enough that a better solution then the current HSR is available.
South West air will undercut($$) the 3 hr San Francisco to LA HSR run. This will be the death knell.
And as the previous post infers, the Star Trek “teleporter” technology will be available first…
SouthWest cancelled 2000 flights yesterday and many more today, and passengers are not happy. SouthWest can’t come up with a plausible explanation. Also, I doubt SF wants to build another airport.
Much of the issue with SWA was crew problems. Part was the prior weather and air traffic controller problems had them at too many places where they shouldn’t be and replacement crews had a tough time getting to where they should be. IF the news is correct (one never knows these days), part was also some “sick-outs” due to their employees sending management a message about the vacination requirements. We’ll see if this becomes a lingering problem.
SWA has utilized older and less used airports and turned them into their main location in a given area. If they want even a larger presence in SF they will look for available space somewhere in the vacinity. The price difference is enough that their passengers will tolerate some extra travel time to the airport. I have had some SWA flights that were better than others but I’ve never had one I’d call “bad”. They’re the only US airline for which I can make that statement.
“Google informs us that it cost approximately $104 million to build the Transcontinental railroad; I believe there were some cost overruns involved in that project, too. Think what has been, and will continue to be the value of that permanent improvement & investment to California and the nation?”
I don’t know where you got that $104 Million amount. Looking it up on line it cost about $60 Million or $1.2 Billion in today’s currency. I wasn’t able to quickly find out if that was the total cost for the RR’s or the cost of the Goverment subsidies–$16,000 per mile for flat land, $32,000 for foothills, $48,000 for mountains.
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The California governor is signing a bill that has in it the requirement that retailers with 500 or more employees in the state that have toy sections in their stores will need to have a clearly delineated gender neutral toy section. Cost overrun for Lionel layout construction projects.
“No reliable figures exist for how much construction of the line cost. One estimate places the cost of the Central Pacific at about $36 million, another at $51.5 million. Oakes Ames testified that the Union Pacific cost about $60 million to build. When the road was completed in 1869, the capitalization of the Union Pacific stood at a staggering $111 million, of which $74 million was in bonds. When the Crédit Mobilier scandal exploded in 1872–1873, both the House and Senate formed committees to investigate the charges of fraud and bribery. Their findings succeeded only in making a tangled tale even more convoluted. Oakes Ames was pronounced guilty of bribing fellow congressmen, but no one was found guilty of receiving the payoffs. Although numerous figures were tossed about in testimony then and later, the actual cost of construction remains unknown.”
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How very similar that when completed, the first Pacific railroad involved massive overspending into various pockets, and would initially result in only a rickety single track starting from a relatively unsettled region far distant from most of its prospective clientele…
You notice there is no public outcry on HSR to be completed quickly? Little need Or desire for any one to ride it (besides Joe)?