FORWARD! to Hi Tech c. 1840 !!!
Late on Friday, the Independence Day week, before a month’s holiday…
California lawmakers approved billions of dollars Friday in construction financing for the initial segment of the nation’s first dedicated high-speed rail line connecting
Los AngelesMadera andSan FranciscoBakersfield. [about 140 mi.]…authorizes the state to begin selling $4.5 billion in voter-approved bonds that includes $2.6 billion to build an initial 130-mile stretch of the high-speed rail line in the Central Valley. That will allow the state to collect another $3.2 billion in federal funding that could have been rescinded if lawmakers failed to act Friday.
^rollover^
Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, [chair of the high-speed rail committee] said public support had waned for the project, and there were too many questions about financing to complete it.
No word on Federal loans for rifles so passengers may shoot buffalo and injuns from the moving train…
Aaaand, lest we forget:
Privately held DesertXpress [a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] is on the verge of landing a $4.9 billion loan from the Obama administration to build the 150 mph train… that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.
…The vast park-and-ride project hinges on the untested idea that car-loving Californians will drive about 100 miles from the Los Angeles area [to Victorville] , pull off busy Interstate 15 and board a train for the final leg to the famous Strip.
O’ course, when ya get back to that Victorville parking lot from your little Vegas Holiday, your wheels will be gone, engine removed, mirrors and windows shattered, body bullet-pocked and graffitti’d and the remains burned out…. BTNIN: JOBZ, Baybe, JOBZ!
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35 Comments!
Y’all been railroaded.
Some interesting tidbits:
Kaliforeigna first tried to set up a *highspeed rail* from CA. to Las Vegas, years ago. But they discovered that Calif-weenies preferred the 30 minute cheep flight to Vegas!!!!! NATCH, Harry Reid aka“Hal Einstein” is trying to steal our money, again(!) via the Same. Fucking. Idea. Cali-weenies. Rejected. Years. Ago!!!!
What MoonBeam & RATz approved (…BY ONE FUCKING VOTE…) Friday was a highspeed (…referring to speed money burns…) Rail fm Madera to BakersPatch! There are 155 Humanoids per square mile along this route. LA, for instance has 24,000 peeps per square mile (…for contrast only…). The Humanoids for the 1st 130 miles, approved Friday—-would provide, optimistically, 0.03 % of the total cost for this InFuckingsane Moonbeam Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The CA KisPers have ONE well-used course of action now. Another Bloody Farking RECALL! Either we replace Moonbeam with CLAIRE or LUCIUS PERTINAX or TUA or both, elsewise, WE must give up our properties and move, on a rental basis, to THE ASYLUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And when the train fiasco is done, no one will ride it.
To get to the train station in Victorville, you have 20 traffic lights through a part of town where all the store signs are in Spanish and people pay rent by the hour.
If you time it right and get your luggage to the train on time, from the time you leave the 15 fwy till you get to your Vegas rent-a-car it will only take you 6 hours.
or
Drive the 4 hours to Vegas on your own terms.
Driving home on a Sunday it might take 6 hours because of the veggie checkpoint in Barstow.
They don’t like imported fruit fly’s in California.
But on ‘tother hand – anybody with a real serious need to get from Madera to Bakersfield (or vice-versa) in a damn quick hurry is in luck – in about 20 years.
Having grown up in the San Joaquin Valley, I know that no one wants to go from Madera to Bakersfield, or visa versa.
Whoda thunk the road to Hell would be on two shiny sections of steel at over one hundred miles per hour.
After reading all youz guyz comments & rereading Claire’s post,
I don’t think either Moonbeam’s or Reid’s proposed projects
have anything to do with reality, practicality, useability, common
sense, fiscal responsibility, etc, etc.
I’m suspecting more & more that this is mostly if not totally
a sop to the unions & everybody that stands to make a bundle of
money ‘now’ or in the near future. This would be from the advance
funds for the planning, design, engineering, permits, surveys, new
state & fed gubbmint agencies, plus years of bureaucratic BS, etc.
This would also guarantee lots of votes for whoever promises to
keep this gigantic gravy train going. And I think that’s the only
train we’ll ever see out of this colossal historical boondoggle!
I wonder how many other similar projects will be funded or ‘promised’
before ‘November’! Sure would get a lot of ‘unemployed’ votes!
The land use and planning consultants, attorneys, and environmental groups are salivating. This is decades long employment…
lanace (8)
Yep, and the term you’re lookin’ for is “looting.”
The CA legislature, where “blithering” requires an upgrade.
DougM (10), you’re absolutely right, but my comment would not
have been as impressive, meaningful & hopefully quasi-intelligent
if I had just put the word ” L O O T I N G ” in da middle of the page.
An’ I wouldn’t have been able to get my daily vocabularry exercise!
PatrickP (9), thanx. You described the entities better than I did,
plus a more realistic time frame or ‘duration’ of the ‘projects’>
In the past, railroads were fond of giving passenger trains along certain runs a catchy or elegant sounding name, such as the Dixie Limited, the Royal Blue, the Silver Meteor, etc.
Lance just found the name for this new arrival:
The Gravy Train!
Pass it on.
Time to dust this off:
Earthquake + 140 mph train = derail = deaths = lawsuits against builders/engineers and manufacturers. Crooked politicians go unscathed despite derailing the State.
Notice how there’s absolutely no check on continued deficit spending for worthless porkbarrel not only of CA money, but U.S. taxpayer money as well.
The system is so complex and so much designed for fiscal abuses, that I’m not sure even changing administrations at the national level will staunch the flow even if the new administration wants to.
dick, NQDWG (12), Thanx! Feel like I did my good deed for the day!
Hopefulone (14), no problemo! Think of all the new contracts for repairs,
reconstruction, upgrades, safety improvements, alternate transportation,
lawyers fees, new rolling stock, etc. They’d just have to wait until the
bodies were removed. They’d also want it on a holiday weekend so the
union crews could get double time & a half pay!
Hopeful, I see your point (had the thought myself), but there’s no need for worry: nobody’s going to be riding the thing anyway… why would they?
PS: a cherie thought — perhaps the politicians involved in this gigantic waste of money will ride it on its maiden voyage; always the chance an 8.4 will hit then. In which case the money won’t be wasted after all.
I am $400k away from owning this Lair….. Yeah, sounds like a lot, but it’s do able…… Love this place, but my place in Costa Rica is looking better and better………not a plug, didn’t tell you what it is….. So there.
..word is that the High Speed Rail folks in France, FRANCE, offered their expertise to the State of California for the high speed rail projeckt……one thing France does have is efficient, high speed rail……California told them to drop dead…..no thanks…..which to me is further evidence of a major boondoggle in the offing…..the California legislature doesn’t want it built, they just want the money spread around……oink oink oink….
I propose an all solar powered train, with regular trips through Death Valley. Sol Train. DJ Moonbeam will be your conductor
Lance has it dead right:
They don’t CARE if anybody rides the sonuvabitch.
This is all about political payoffs to the Unions, and government related businesses.
With our State already with a 16 Billion dollar budget shortfall, it is the only explaination that makes any sense.
Moonbeam has learned NOTHING in the last 30 years.
Well, he fucked just about every tax payer in California last Friday AND he’ll get to fuck every tax payer in America before it’s even built. So there’s that…
When BIG federal bucks were in the offering everyone must of known it was already a done deal.
Recall my ass. Prosecute for fraud is more like it.
Also we have effectively no enforcement against vote fraud in California, and it’s been that way most of my life.
I may have to join the cowards, er, fine folks who have already fled the state before this is over. That makes me a coward too… or at least on a “strategic retreat.” Not like I can afford to do *anything* now, but it’s only going to get worse.
They’re driving up taxes, especially on energy, *again*.
There will be ghost towns before it’s over. And they’ll blame everyone else.
Offhand, why didn’t they go for a cool-lookin’ monorail or maglev approach. You know something non-mid19thC.
Large slingshots. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s the FUTURE!
As they say, “follow the money”:
“… allow the state to collect another $3.2 billion in federal funding …”
Have you ever known a Democrat to turn down money?
Meanwhile, a real tsunami of lawyers is looming on the horizon. There will be so many lawsuits they won’t know what hit them. Not the least of which is the fact that the law we passed back when said that the trip would take 2hrs +. The best estimates so far make it well over 3 hrs.
Alan outback bacon czar: There was a radio show interview with a major farmer from that area. He said (besides the fact that the gummint keeps on keeping them from getting enough water) that the original plans call for the railway to use existing roadways (paths, channels, &c). But they’re going to drive right though farmland.
Another fine point: Federal laws call for the train to be made “terrorist-resistant”. That means fences along the railway – meaning that to cross the rails, you might have to drive 10 miles north, cross, and drive 10 miles south to get where you want to go.
Somebody needs to find a Lesser Spotted Ginko where the rails are spozed to go. Bring down the project in a heartbeat.
ZZMike,
It is not just potential terrorists. ALL highspeed railways have a secure fence along both sides of the tracks. Japan does. To prevent animals and people from access to the tracks. Engineers knew of the catastrophic possibilities if the tracks were accessable. Japan built a shitload of *overcrossings* to minimize local pedistrian cars and foot traffic to lessen as best they could changes in cross-traffic daily needs.
The PRIMARY reason this CA. highspeed rail will never be built is not so obvious but is a showstopper. Years of measuring reveals one factor. There is not that much annual TRAFFIC via all means between San Francisco and Los Angeles!!!!!! Sooo, why is Moonbeam hard over to solve what may be a minor inconvenience for some travelers? At such a MAJOR cost in taxpayer`s annual fees, that could be used for other things like road and bridges repair/replacement?
Ironic inDenver (15),
This is how I’ve been feeling more & more!
Thanx for posting this! Doesn’t bode well for our future, IMHO!
Ironic (#15): On the other hand, we know it definitely won’t if we don’t change.
COL Jerry (#27): “There is not that much annual TRAFFIC via all means between San Francisco and Los Angeles!!!!!!”
But – they assure us that people will come in droves to get from SF to LA (and vice versa). There’ll be so many people wanting to make that trip that the trains will look like the ones you see in India.
Wait, why is it in Volvo racing colors?
Why would somebody want to go from LA to SF in a hurry anyway?
Oh wait… I just remembered…
Henri Claude (19), your comment about Californication turning
down French expertise & experience for building the highspeed
rail, in my mind, almost proof that this was not intended to be
a financially viable project. The French have an incredibly
extensive & successful high speed rail system, TGV, all over the
country & decades of experience. And Kali isn’t innerested!!!
Here’s a U-tube on how advanced the French are with really
high speed rail transportation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE4A0nPjyqQ&feature=related
Multiple the 574Kph by .62 to get the equivalent mph.
I don’t think this is gonna happen anywhere or ever in Califlowernia!
Lance: Musta been a test run – else why make a big deal out of the top speed (the signboard at the end).
But still, a nice touch, using a jet fighter as a chase plane.
Another thing: Only 4 cars (if you count the front one). And it’s “yo-lectric”!!!
Claire: As usual, you hit the nail right on the head. Or maybe it’s the head right on the nail. I forget. I’m officially old now. Gimme a break.
Yanno, I remember this one time when I drove a rental car from Las Vegas to San Bernadino (315 mi.) in three hours and 15 minutes. Normally a 5-hour drive. Even my crude math skilwz can figure out that that means about a 100 mph. average. Of course, I had my brother (a trained pilot) riding shotgun with me to look out-for planes. This was back before the CHP was allowed to use RADAR, so the only thing they could do was pace you, or time you from a plane. That came in handy once, when brother shouted, “Da plane! Da plane!” So I stomped on the binders till we was going about 40 mph. to make up for the first part of the mile that he’d already started timing us on. All was well, and we putted right by the bevy of patrol cars waiting at the end of that mile. Heh. Put the hammer back down!
I was concentrating on the road at that speed, but I do remember my brother saying, at one point, “Hey! I think we just passed Wayne Newton in a Clenet!”
“Who’s Wayne Newton?”, I said, “and what the hell is a Clenet? You mean that funny-looking little red roadster we passed back there?”
Screw the train. I’ll just rent a car [I think it was a Chrysler--- top speed: about 115 mph {this was back during the Carter years} and stuff].
California towns: Stockton, Mammouth Springs and NOW San Bernadino————————-ALL BANKRUPT!!!!!!!
“Dream on, dream on, Moonbeam Brownnnnnnnn……………
You`re the silliest RAT in Sacto Townnnnnnn”
(…trombones chime in w fast version of `Taps`…)