half-fast train to nowhere
From nowhere. BTNIN.
In what amounts to the highest profile political pressure that the Obama administration has applied on the state so far, [small>"so far" being the operative term. also, "that we've seen"] [Transportation Secretary Ray my French Cuffs prove I'm not a thug] LaHood met with Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles), among others.
“What I have been reading about is they are planning on holding hearings, that they are going to go throughout summer. That doesn’t suit us,” LaHood said at a news conference after the meetings.
“No soup train $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for YOU!!!
“They are telling us what to do but they are offering us nothing,” [State Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), chairman of a select committee on high-speed rail]
saidwhinged. “There is not enough federal support.”
So you, the chairman of the Congressional committee — yanno, Congress, the holders of the purse strings — are whinging to US you have less power than the Transportation Secretary.
That’s ….informative
The bullet train track through the Central Valley would cost $6 billion and have to be completed by September 2017, or else potentially lose some of its federal funding. …spending as much as $3.5 million every calendar day, holidays and weekends included… [called a "burn rate"]
Over four years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority would need as many as 120 permits, mostly from a tangle of government regulatory agencies not known to rush their business. It would need to acquire about 1,100 parcels of land, many from powerful agriculture interests that have already threatened to sue. And it would need to assemble five teams of contractors with giant workforces positioned from Fresno to Bakersfield, moving millions of tons of gravel, steel rail and heavy equipment across the valley.
[what's the carbon footprint of *that*?!?]
Wait…. what happened to “Corcran to Borden”?!?*
the $6.5-billion Bay Bridge will have an average spending or “burn rate” of $1.8 million per day … The Alameda Corridor also had a similar $1.8 million per day burn rate…
So roads and bridges cost less….
Mark Ashley, a senior vice president with the rail authority’s consultant T.Y. Lin International Group, noted that the project has identified 25 issues in the Merced-to-Bakersfield construction plan as high risk or very high risk and that the project is now nine months behind schedule in securing official approval from the Federal Railroad Administration.
Isn’t that a Transportation Secretary department?
One strategy of the rail authority is to shift the schedule and cost risk to the contractors. Under its contract terms, builders would face $1 million per day in penalties for failure to meet final deadlines after March 1, 2017. That is the highest penalty rate known to exist in the U.S.
…The contractors will have to spend more than $8 million on engineering work by the time they submit bids in September, of which only $2 million will be compensated by the rail authority…
Yet the Legislature recently decided to delay a decision to provide the state’s share of initial construction money until August,…
What could possibly go worng?
….only not so fast as Germany, in 1903, 12-wheel all-electric train between Marienfeld and Berlin: 126 mph
But a number of key California senators are skeptical about the entire strategy of starting construction in the Central Valley.
“It is a big enough problem for me to vote no, as of right now,” said Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord), chairman of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
Well, there’s a candle of hope in the darkness…
Tax collections have run $3.5 billion below what [Gov Moonbeam Brown] calculated four months ago. Spending has grown $2 billion above projections. The federal government and court ruling blocked some savings he expected, while his fellow Democrats in the Legislature balked at others. [for a grant total of] the gap has widened to $16 billion
*candle blown out*
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17 Comments!
Not to mention that the entire decision-making process has to start over every time a powerful legislator/bureaucrat position changes hands. They subsist on control.
While it has long been accepted that one does not speak ill of
Californiathe dead; here inside the *World`s Largest Open-Air Insane Asylum*, an exception must needs.Moonbeam Brown`s modus operandi holds no surprises. His unionizing of *public servants* in his 1st governorship probably was/is a cornerstone for California`s financial “Black Plague”! Moonbeam, in cahoots with our
*Union Eunachs*Legislature, ONLY missed our accumulating Debt by greater than half (16,000,000,000.00(Actual) – 9,000,000,000.00 = SEVEN BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS!!!!!Using this as an (psssfffttt) accounting standard (psssffftt), WE confidently wait here for a coupla daze when MoonBeam sez he will *make a few minor adjustments* whereupon all will be on track
again.Natch, this will be based upon—-wait for it—–A FUCKING TAX INCREASE, which Moonbeam, holding hostage that ancient, fossilized skeleton-SCHOOLS, (yew no, them schools which score damn-near Dead-Fucking-Last in the nation; yea-ah them). HOWEVER(…whew!…) Moonbeam will only tax the millionaires (…defined mathematically as…those peeps grossing a million fucking dollars in their whole fucking lifetime, based on entering the workforce at age 15 and dying around 90 or 95 years of age; give or take!!!!!!
SOOOOO, using the *Logic* of Sacrastupido, spending (as in: not having…) severals ofs millions ofs dollars PER fucking day for an unoccupied hi-spd choo choo—–is PEANUTS (defined by Jimmuh Carter…)!!!!
Hot Tip: For those of us who are illiterate in the whys and wherefores of standard accounting, may I suggest a re-watching of a movie. What movie, you say? THE SHINING!!!!!!!
Gee, if only someone had forseen the difficulties…
Yabut when they spend all of this money, you will be able to go from Fresno to Bakersfield.
^ You know anybody who actually wants to do that?
LaHood – a truly unfortunate name.
The problem is, we (California) just don’t have the money. We don’t have $2.7 billion. The only way they’re going to come up with that sort of money is to raise taxes through the roof (which they’re trying to do, in the election in June).
Beyond that, I doubt there’s anybody in this state whose head is screwed on right that thinks this is a <volume = 11> stupid < volume=1> idea.
This part is truly brilliant:
“Under its contract terms, builders would face $1 million per day in penalties for failure to meet final deadlines after March 1, 2017.”
Anybody out here ever run a company? Does anybody think that any sane company president would sign on to such a deal?
Maybe “Mom’s Hi-Speed Rail, Inc.”, headquartered in Atlantic City, NJ, might sign on. But if they do, they’re gonna make darn sure that the work gets done on time – even if they have to put more sand in the cement than is usually advised.
Those other countries that have moderate success with “lickety-split trains” have the advantage of good road-beds. Ours are so out of condition that our trains can’t go much over 60 mph.
I just had a brilliant idea – so much so that I’ll just take the rest of the day off:
Import a few hundred thousand Chinese laborers to do the heavy digging and lifting. Pay them generously – up to $2/day. Job done. (Please, no applause.)
How long did it take Hank&Dagny to build the John Galt Line?
“Billions and billions and billions…”
That’s my Carl Sagan impersonation. It’s because of the “London Whale”, the sooper-genius trader that burned through over 2 billion of JP Morgan’s moolah:
“…reports that Iksil is likely to leave the bank, but his fate isn’t entirely clear at this point.”
Bet: a pair of channel-locks and a blowtorch.
Stop it with all the fucking choo-choos. Just stop it.
So you, the chairman of the Congressional committee — yanno, Congress, the holders of the purse strings — are whinging to US you have less power than the Transportation Secretary.
That’s ….informative
__________________________________________________
[STATE Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), chairman of a select committee on high-speed rail]
Whining, yes. Chairman, yes.
Of a Congressional committee, no. Powerful, no.
Even so, I have no sympathy. States gave away their power in evchange for money outta the magical Treasury box, and now they find themselves addicted, weak looking for the next hit.
Welll, let me say this about that:
1. Neither LaLaHood or anyone else in the Federal government has any money to give. LaHood, you blinkered idiot, you and your co-conspirators have put us $16 trillion in debt, and until you pay that down, you don’t have one fucking dime to give anybody.
2. $6 billion to build that boondoggle is a fucking joke. If it is built, and the California government and the Federal government have anything to do with it, I predict it will cost $30 billion and take 15 years to build.
3. The only parties making any money from the project will be lawyers dragging other parties into court over miniscule issues.
4. If built, unions involved with its operation will make sure the project will lose at least 1 billion per year.
5. It will be less efficient than Amtrak or the Postal Service.
6. The trains will rarely reach design speed because of political pressures for additional stops, environmental lawsuits and shoddy maintenance of the right of way.
In summary: A guaranteed clusterfuck of the FUBAR level.
^ Dick, you forgot:
7. The California Sharia Liberation Front will regularly blow up pieces of the line, mostly when a train is
speedingcreeping through.The California Sharia Liberation Front
I in D – You’re on to something. Actually, before they try that, they’ll demand the trains stop five times a day so that all three islamic riders can pray. When they find out the dining car serves ham sandwiches, then they’ll blow up some stuff.
Dick, I assume that during the five stops a day, the TSA will be questioning & searching all 10 non-islamic passengers.
Not to mention that the entire decision-making process has to start over every time a powerful legislator/bureaucrat position changes hands. They subsist on control.
DougM,
No Doug, they subsist on GRAFT. The more it changes hands the more opportunities for graft!
Oh and gang, how many of you want to be on one of those trains going 100 mph and an EARTHQUAKE happens.
Bet that would be a bummer.
The Libs have totally bankoed the state as to ‘revenues’, never EVER being able to even think a word such as ‘balance’ and accountability are still part of the human language but5 will ALWAYS Fluke it up when it comes to their stupid ass logic and wisdom. After all, Theeeeeeey know best.
Hey Snowbeam, bend over, the Bama man has evolved to doing something nice to you.
What happened to California wasn’t that there’s something in the water. The leftists moved *into* the state, wrecked it, and are already starting to move *out* of the state because they wrecked it. That will only get worse.
If you don’t fight on this line on the map, you’ll be fighting on one closer to home. You don’t generally defeat a foe by surrendering territory. I wish people would think about that.