California spent nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds over a decade and a half without laying a single foot of track for Newsom’s high speed rail, The New York Post reports. Newsom was due to get another $4 billion for the train from nowhere in the middle of farmland to the prison. It went to Bakersfield where half the residents are prisoners.
The total project cost of the California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) is now projected at $113 billion, and with needed extras, $158 billion. By the decade’s end, they will have completed 164 miles and only completed 117 miles so far. It’s a train to nowhere. In the future, the best one can hope for is lots of transfers to conventional trains, ending in a bus ride.
President Trump took it out of its misery:
“To the Law abiding, Tax paying, Hardworking Citizens of the United States of America, I am thrilled to announce that I have officially freed you from funding California’s disastrously overpriced, “HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE.” This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns.
“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will. This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED. Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again. This was an ill-conceived and unnecessary project, and a total waste of Taxpayer money — But no more!”
The San Francisco Examiner detailed the plans prior to its defunding (highlight is mine):
In other words, the Merced station will serve as CAHSR’s gateway to Northern California, connecting high-speed trains to conventional trains bound for Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, and other cities across the region. There would also be buses to Yosemite.
Once CAHSR’s initial operating segment in the Central Valley is complete, it will be possible to take a conventional train from the Bay Area or Sacramento to Merced, where you could transfer to a high-speed train. From there, in about 1½ hours, you’d be in Bakersfield.
The situation on the other end of the high-speed line wouldn’t be as smooth, at least not initially. After arriving in Bakersfield, riders would need to take a bus the final two hours to Los Angeles. The drive from Bakersfield to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo is about 2½ hours.
It would still be a slog, but the introduction of high-speed rail in the Central Valley would cut down considerably on travel time between the Bay Area and Southern California. The train and bus journey from Oakland to Los Angeles, currently about 8 hours and 40 minutes, would decline to about 7 hours with smooth transfers. In addition, trains are expected to run twice as frequently once the initial leg of high-speed rail is up and running.
Making insanity fun again.
High speed rail has seemingly worked well in nations like Spain, France and Germany, but any project managed and overseen by Democrats is sure to be over-priced, over-regulated, over-unionized and rife with cost-overruns, delays and funds wasted on nonsensical and unneeded features. Shut it down.