AOC is not going to like this

[Frostbit]

California planned high speed train bullet shot in the foot.

[Newman]

Often when the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were replaced, the new one set about erasing the legacy of the old one, destroying statues and hieroglyphics and so on.

Goofy Newsom has his own box of nuttiness to unload, so he needs to push aside some of Moonbean Brown's idiosyncratic boondoggles.

Brown's fantasy was closer to the old Jetsons cartoon. Newsom's fantasy is more like importing cheap gravediggers to bury American victims, killing two birds with one stone, securing open borders, and suppressing wages for the not-elite. Three birds with one stone, if you count people like Kate Steinle.

[scott]

A high-speed rail line linking Los Angeles to San Francisco was the goal when voters approved a ballot measure in 2008. The roughly 520-mile line initially was estimated to cost $33 billion and was pegged for completion in 2020. Officials eventually hoped to connect the line to San Diego and Sacramento.

Subsequent estimates more than doubled the cost to $77 billion and pushed the timeline to 2033.

Wow! No wonder people don't trust the rosy projections of Democrats who talk about "infrastructure."

This quote from Newsome is funny:

"For those who want to walk away from this whole endeavor, I offer you this," he said. "Abandoning high-speed rail entirely means we will have wasted billions of dollars with nothing but broken promises and lawsuits to show for it."

It's funny because it's so true, that's exactly what Democrats do.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-s-new-governor-slams-brakes-san-francisco-los-angeles-n970851

[Tom Servo]

Newsome could not win this one. If he went through with the grand scheme, it'd be an even bigger boondoggle than it already has been, and you guys would be laughing your asses off. If he killed it, you're still laughing at how Democrats don't really care about infrastructure.

And yet it manages to get worse because it's killed but not really dead — there's still going to be an environmental review done on the entire proposed system (something to do with losing federal funding) which will then open up the thing to environmental lawsuits… which will only cost the state more money on something that has little chance of being built out now.

Not only that, but apparently Newsom has committed to finishing the Bakersfield to Mercer Central Valley part of the system, meaning there will be high speed rail between two basically irrelevant cities (by Cali. standards) with zero potential ridership needing that route to exist.

He somehow managed to turn a "damned if you, damned if you don't" problem and make it three times worse. It's damnation cubed!

[80zephyr]

Tom posted:

And yet it manages to get worse because it's killed but not really dead — there's still going to be an environmental review done on the entire proposed system (something to do with losing federal funding) which will then open up the thing to environmental lawsuits… which will only cost the state more money on something that has little chance of being built out now.

This is the problem with California. The Democrats are environmental wackos. Unless the environment remains pristine, they will "study" a proposal to death. The Democrats in New York did the same thing when the state replaced the Tappen Zee bridge. From what I read, it cost billions to study the environment to put a bridge right next to the old bridge.

And that was one lousy bridge, not miles and miles of new railroad.

Mark

[Lady Marva]

California getting fed tax money from all the rest of us?

[scott]

Newsome could not win this one. If he went through with the grand scheme, it'd be an even bigger boondoggle than it already has been, and you guys would be laughing your asses off. If he killed it, you're still laughing at how Democrats don't really care about infrastructure.

And yet it manages to get worse because it's killed but not really dead — there's still going to be an environmental review done on the entire proposed system (something to do with losing federal funding) which will then open up the thing to environmental lawsuits… which will only cost the state more money on something that has little chance of being built out now.

Not only that, but apparently Newsom has committed to finishing the Bakersfield to Mercer Central Valley part of the system, meaning there will be high speed rail between two basically irrelevant cities (by Cali. standards) with zero potential ridership needing that route to exist.

He somehow managed to turn a "damned if you, damned if you don't" problem and make it three times worse. It's damnation cubed!

That's the point. It was a boondoggle from the beginning, it was also so incompetently executed that it ran out of money.

[scott]

California getting fed tax money from all the rest of us?

Of course they are. $5.9 Billion so far

[Djharkavy]

California getting fed tax money from all the rest of us?

California is one of the states that tense to give more to the federal government that it gets. The rest of you are taking money from California.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Here's a thing. Legislators in CA like to tout how "green" they are. Tough to do that when you fly or drive home every weekend to Merced (AFAIK, there is no "Mercer," CA, Tom), Fresno, Bakersfield, Burbank, or L.A. Much like the taxi fare structure in DC, this was always all about ferrying legislators up and down the state, with the added benefit that they can "work" during the train ride.

The voting public was all in on the theory, but I can guarantee there would never have been a self-supporting reality, even if it had come in at budget on construction. Angelenos are wedded to cars. If they have to get there fast, they'll take a plane and rent a car. The concept of people taking the train from LA to SF and then using loocal public transit was a fantasy. Angelenos don't DO public transit (oddly enough, even relatively wealthy San Franciscans do). San Franciscans who might otherwise have taken the train to LA would have been left wondering what to do once they arrived: there's no public transit, and even native Angelenos are baffled by LA traffic, so outlanders don't have a prayer.

Brown's Boondoggle, the Moonbeam Express, was a loser from the get-go. I don't like Newsom, but props to him for (sort of) declaring it DOA.

[Lady Marva]

California is one of the states that tense to give more to the federal government that it gets. The rest of you are taking money from California.

Then why aren't they taxing themselves for their personal toys?