California bullet train cost surges by $2.8 billion: 'Worst-case scenario has happened'

I was living in CA when this bullet train was proposed and there was a lot of opposition to it. One of the first things the people against it said was the cost estimate was overly optimistic. The second thing they said was what would happen if the project was partially built and money became scarce?

If you read the last paragraph I quoted, you'll see that this bullet train is being funded by highway improvement funds and, unless I'm wrong, in my mind that means gas taxes. I also believe that in order to survive once the train is built, if ever, ticket prices would be incredibly high which is not good since this train would have to compete with flying and driving up and down California.

That the LA Times would publish this article is an indication of their questioning the wisdom of this train to no where.

 

Final number?

20 billion+.

I like trains, but this was a huge political mistake.

 

So if the state of California borrows most of this money to pay for it what would be the interest and cost to service that debt?
I know this is very simplistic and without facts but let's say the cost for this project is $12 billion. And perhaps the profit per ticket (after regular ongoing expenses) is maybe $20. That would mean they would need to sell 600 million tickets to recover their investment. Or 20 million riders per year for the next 30 years. 55,000 passengers every single day. That would mean every car load would have to resemble one as in Tokyo during rush hour.

 

the other cost to consider is reduced road traffic, meaning less road repair costs, ect....

but still not sure long term it will pay for itself, if enough use it could reduce traffic, but at a cost

 

It's a boondoggle....like every other utopian pipe dream the commies come up with.

 

Whatever happened to building dams and reservoirs to be better able to handle drought conditions?

The state's agriculture is languishing, vast acreage of fruit trees are dead. (These trees don't just come back if you give them water the next year)

But no, they have money for a bullet train.

 

Do the states in the West have a lot of road repairs? I thought it was mostly very cold weather states like where I am from (Minn.) that is plagued with constant road repair 6 months of the year.

Yes it would reduce traffic (somewhat), but at what cost as you say? The Twin Cities was very late in putting in light rail --- so late that it made the idea ill-advised and super expensive. So we have a few light rail lines but all of them are losing tons of money. They put one in between St. Paul and Minneapolis down a very busy commercial and retail avenue. About 20 miles. Not only has it ruined that avenue and its businesses, studies have now show that the time to travel between St. Paul and Minneapolis on light rail takes longer than the public bus lines did and still do. So what was the point? Some legislator said instead of spending billions on light rail they should have just offered free busing and save a lot of money and problems.

 

I use to take trains back when I smoked vs flying, they were slow, but now they decided to remove the smoking car, so they will not even get those types of customers, smokers will just drive

 

It's worth pointing out that a lot of the high cost of this train project has to do with the high cost of living in the state, ironically since there are so many people. But also partly because of all the regulatory burdens. Building such a project would have been much cheaper somewhere like Mississippi or Wisconsin.

Basically too many people = land and housing in shorter supply = rents go up = businesses have to charge more

 

Who needs water, when you can get around really fast in a barren wasteland, after the water runs out, while suffering from dehydration of course. They better find a way to harvest every drop of rain.

 

fyi, road degredation occurs in all environments and vehicle size and usage are the main factors.

 

But presumably also less income from gas taxes?

 

true, assuming that was 100% paying for all repairs and not only a portion of it

 

right, but the demographics must also be taken into account. This can't be viewed the same as with a private intiative where the numbers would never work. Even if only 1 riders uses the train each day, it allows Californians to be able to say that they have the train. They will gladly pay increased taxes for that luxury.

 

OMG!!! The bullet train is hella over budget... SHOCKING!!! I bet a lot of the money goes into the hands of the people who funnel it right back to the Democrat Party.

 

In Germany and Europe in general we have excellent train systems. Our ICE for example connects all cities in Germany with highspeed and is faster than travel by airplane.

 

Do they need the Feds now?

 

in the densely populated areas, yes. There's a heck of a lot of country in Europe where you have no choice but to drive.

 

You guys also have the Autobahn, try driving on the US highways anywhere near the speeds you can go on the Autobahn. You would be arrested for wreckless operation rather quickly.

 

Why? I usually go by 180 - 220 km/h and this is smooth driving.

 

Ha.hahahaha.

That's 70MPH over the speed limit average on the highways in my state. If you go over the speed limit by 15MPH it's wreckless operation and you get your license suspended.

 

California only has one priority:

Flood the state with as many Mexican nationals as possible by any means necessary, and use all state funding to protect them.

 

Why is it that way? What happened to " land of the free"? Why do tehy force you to crawl on the streets?

 

Here's the thing; California is car country, pretty much every family has at least 2 cars. Where I used to live, Riverside County, they had a commuter train which went that Riverside to LA, but that was mostly for people commuting to and from work, if they depended on just taking travelers from Riverside to LA the trains would be empty.

I doubt these bullet trains will be used for people to commute to and from work. People might be interested in they want to go from So Cal up to the northern areas, but if you take the train, then once you get there you still don't have a car to tool around in.

When the train starts to lose even more money due to low passenger participation it will be at that time CA implements a mileage tax on vehicles on top of the gas taxes. By doing so it might discourage people making long drives up and down the state and use the train instead.

 

Don't bother, Cali will soon sink into the ocean.