Too soon old: Too late smart
Here’s your update on the ever-popular CA Half-Fast Train.
A new poll finds California voters are experiencing buyers’ remorse over a proposed $68 billion bullet train project, as the number of lawsuits against the rail system grows.
Lawsuits is your problem?!? Lawsuits??!?
Not the doubling of the price?
Not the change of route from San Francisco to Anaheim Corcran to Borden Bakersfield to Fresno Bakersfield to Merced Here to Brokeville?
Not that due to Poor Prior Planning and blind eminent domain the tracks will split private farms in half?
Not that the “projected costs” have tripled to $117.6 Billion?
Not that the route excludes the Capitol, Sack-o-tomaters and San Diego?
Not that “bullet trains” don’t pay their own way anywhere else in the world [ok - one segment in Japan and one in Frants]?
Not that the ridiculously high projected ridership has dropped by 60 million? [The number of riders exceeded the number of passengers out of LAS and SFO -- most of whom are traveling out of CA]
Not that it’s simply a sop to the public unions so that Gov. Grandpaw can get ‘em off his back?
Not that it will never be able to achieve “Hi-Speeds” because it will share the track with freight and commuter trains and will stop at every Podunky town along the way?
Across the state, 55% of the voters want the bond issue that was approved in 2008 placed back on the ballot, and 59% say they now would vote against it.
There’s your shot…
Although organized labor has been among the biggest proponents of the project, 56% of union households now would reject the state funding plan, the poll found. Even among Democrats, the strongest backers of the project, only 43% would support the bond in a new vote, while 47% would oppose it. And 76% of Republicans would vote it down.
Lose the Unions — lose the state.
The poll found that most voters don’t expect to use it. Sixty-nine percent said they would never or hardly ever ride it. Zero percent said they would use it more than once a week.
aaaaiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee
The poll results raise questions about whether the system would serve as a robust commuter network, allowing people to live in small towns and work in big cities or vice versa.
Well, that’s against the Agenda21 “Live/Work” Plan, anyway….
The high-speed train project is expected to create 16,500 construction-related [temporary, skilled] jobs [which means imported workers] in this region over the life of construction. Once operating, projections estimate 4,500 boardings daily in Fresno and 5,100 in Bakersfield [bwaaaahahahahaaaa], with travel time between Fresno and Bakersfield estimated at 37 minutes [*snork*]. CO2 emission savings are estimated at 84.75 lbs. per trip.
So we have that…. Not counting the C02 emissions created by the manufacture of the tracks, the rolling stock, the rail-bed creating earth-movers, the mining of the raw materials, the transportation of the raw and manufactured materials, all that commuting to and from the job-site …..
*facepalm*
From the “Trip Planner” on the CA High-Speed Rail Authority site.
SF – San Jose: 30 mins / 48 mi.
SJ – Gilroy: 15 mins / 30 mi.
Gilroy – Fresno: 39 mins / 115 mi.
Fresno – Bakersfield: 37 mins / 113 mi.
Bakersfield – Palmdale: 31 mins / 84 mi.
Palmdale – Sylmar: 19 mins / 34 mi.
Sylmar – Burbank: 7 mins. / 13 mi. [Estimated costs: Train: $8 / Car: $2] [that was a one-off factiod]
Burbank – LA: 8 mins. / 11 mi.
That’s 3 hr 6 min. / 448 mi.
LA – SF: 2 hr 38 mins / 432 mi.
So…. Two sets of tracks with different routes?
They hang disembarking passengers in a mail-bag snatched off the 120mph train by a hook at the in-between stops?
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*guk*
Sounds like they really know what they’re doing over there!
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12 Comments!
I have the solution! We build a HUGE 16 engine, wooden seaplane in LA—for to fly to SF and back!!!!!!! OOOOhhhh wait——————————
The Legislature’s idiocy knows no bounds.
Biggest boondoggle in the State, currently – I know folks who are “working” there (High-Speed Rail Authority). They freely admit that they’re just milking it for as long as it lasts and know it’s moronic, which pisses me off no end.
Fresno – Bakersfield: 37 mins / 113 mi.
Really? 183 mph. Not including stops. Really?
Each man’s
deathtaxes diminishes me,For I am involved in
mankinda boondoggle.Therefore, send not to know
For whom the
bell tollstaxman cometh,It tollsHe comes for thee.I guess the union rank & file realized that they weren’t getting their share off the top, under the table, but instead, after the taxman grabs his part off the top. What a radical concept, this reality stuff.
ha! “Forward”………
Damned math sure screws things up. I’m thinking the train builders are holding their breath, while hoping the taxpayers never figure out that physics overrule the imagination.
…oh, I forgot to mention I have a wonderful idea for a transporter, but it will take a couple of million to start the feasibility study.
A day or so ago, our fearless representative, Loretta Sanchez, gave a talk at an event promoting the High-Speed railway.
She told how great it would be; how all those tourists now driving our crowded roads would be on the train.
She told this sad story: She was driving to another recent event, and the freeways were so crowded that she didn’t get there on time and didn’t get her award (she didn’t say what award).
See? Because we don’t have HSR, she missed getting an award. There must be something we can do to make up for this injustice.
And if there were HSR, she could have driven those freeways more quickly and collected her award.
(She’s on the ballot here in CA for tomorrow’s election. That’s one person I won’t be voting for.)
Do they wear pants in the Southern part of Frants?
No can stop the project. To many politicians bought land along the track (they knew where it was going before anyone else) and they would loose money if it is not built.
“go the distance”
“ease their pain”
“Build it and graft will come”
As businesses leave California the trapped rats fight among themselves for what is left of the cheese.
I’d rather give the $$$ to Jess. Who knows? While he’s out frinkling with his new toys in his new shop out behind his new house, he’s waaaay more likely to actually build a working transporter than CA is to build a working HSR…
just sayin’
I’ll gladly take the money. By the way, transporter feasibility studies require a good single malt scotch.