“It’s insanity,” says Thomas Finkbiner of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. “People won’t drive to a train to go someplace. If you are going to drive, why not drive all the way and leave when you want?”
The has hardly been a bigger waste of money than the billions spent on California’s train to nowhere. Just the same, Joe Biden, in his wisdom, thought it would be a great idea to restore funds.
America has money to burn?
Biden’s administration has given $1 billion to the bullet train to nowhere.
“Tonight’s action by the federal government is further proof that California and the Biden-Harris administration share a common vision – clean, electrified transportation [to nowhere] that will serve generations to come,” failed Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
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The 119-mile project has a total of 35 construction sites in California’s Central Valley and averages 1,100 workers per day.
“Restoring nearly $929 million in grant funding back to California’s High-Speed Rail project will continue to spur job creation, advance the project and move the state one step closer to getting trains running in California as soon as possible,” he continued. “We thank the Biden-Harris Administration and Secretary [Pete] Buttigieg for their partnership on this important step forward.”
IT GOES FROM FARMLAND TO PRISONS
The train is nowhere near either L.A. OR San Francisco as originally planned — it was supposed to link north and south California. It is in the rural central valley and not getting out any time soon.
We’re Not Nowhere – It’s Just Almost No One Comes Here
The first segment built is in the middle of farmland. It may be the only section to be built due to costs. The first 58 miles of track ends in a small town where half the residents are in prison. It goes from south of Merced to north of Bakersfield in the Central Valley.
“The initial segment of the proposed California high-speed passenger train system – from south of Merced to north of Bakersfield in the Central Valley – may be the only part of the vaunted system that’s ever built, warned 2012 report from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.
California built the part of the rail project that was easiest, cheapest and had the least amount of obstacles, it was a portion of the track that went, literally, nowhere. It was a useless piece of track in of itself. The purpose of it was to get the project started come hell or high water. This way, government officials could then say to voters that it couldn’t be stopped after spending so much money.
THEY USED HALF THE MONEY FOR SOMETHING ELSE
According to sources at the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), nearly half of the total infrastructure commitment is for upgrades to conventional transit/commuter rail services in LA and the Bay Area. The project has morphed into a statewide transportation program much of which is totally unrelated to the high-speed rail initiative approved by the voters in Proposition 1A.
Newsom scaled the project way back when he took office since it was over-budget, ill-managed, and behind schedule.
In response, Donald Trump attempted to get the federal government’s $3.5 billion back but all he could do was confiscate the $1 billion still unused in the budget.
At the rate it was going, it was estimated it would take 100 years to build and the costs had gone up to $77 billion dollars, $3.5 million a day.
It’s actually a payoff to campaign contributors, including unions.
WATCH:
CATCH THAT TRAIN TO NOWHERE
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