California high-speed rail project over budget before single foot of track laid
Look up in the sky. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the cost of the first section of California’s proposed high-speed rail line!
Look up in the sky. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the cost of the first section of California’s proposed high-speed rail line! And its estimated costs are increasing faster than Obamacare waivers.
The Merced Sun-Star reveals the future and the losing thereof:
Building tracks for the first section of California’s proposed high-speed rail line will cost $2.9 billion to $6.8 billion more than originally estimated…
California High Speed Rail, designed to deliver the Golden State into bankruptcy even faster
A 2009 business plan … estimated costs at about $7.1 billion for the equivalent stretch of tracks. Officials say those estimates were made before detailed engineering work and feedback from communities along the proposed route.
OK, the data produced by the Magic 8-Ball was wrong.
The latest estimates are contained in two environmental impact studies…
Environmental impact studies have destroyed more infrastructure projects than the Luftwaffe.
The rail authority’s chief executive, Roelof van Ark, said planners anticipated the higher costs as more information about land acquisition and other details related to actual construction became known.
Planners knew their estimates were bogus but it’s raaaaacist to bother Obama when he’s playing with his trains.
“We’ve had cost increases, but I believe the costs are now realistic and fair,” he said.
Likely they are neither.
Van Ark also said he expects the estimated total cost of the project, originally pegged at $43 billion, to rise.
Why produce an estimate he knows is low? It’s a game. He estimates $43 billion knowing it’s actually $200 billion and will act surprised when it hits $500 billion. All for a project nobody but politicians actually wants.
But at least your destitute grandkids will have a nice train station to sleep in.
