Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   California High Speed Rail debacle Date:   2/14/2019 11:44:06 AM

So now Occasional Cortex is planning a 15-city, 50 state tour to promote her the Green New Deal (GND).  I assume they will be traveling by train.....not!  As she makes her rounds with this socialist fantasy project while flying on unicorns fueled by cow farts I suggest we look at Taxifornia to see how this will work out.  Some lowlights:

• When originally envisioned it would provide high speed rail between SF and LA and ultimately connecting to SD and Sacramento.  The original cost for the SF-LA-SD portion of the project was estimated in 2006 to be around $35B.  By 2008 it had grown to $45B. 
• The original bond approved by the voters was less than $10B with a total repayment cost of almost $20B (Principal and Interest).  Obama threw in $3.2B in Fed money.  The rest was going to come from other sources and not the taxpayers.
• In 2010 the budget was again revised and Phase I (SF-LS which is only 520 of the 800 original miles) was now going to cost $43B alone with no estimate for when it would be done.  A year later the estimate for Phase I went up to $98B but after public outcry they magically came back with an estimate of $64B.  
• By the time Gov Moonbeam broke ground in 2015 the estimate for Phase I once again grew to $68B and would not be done until 2028.

So let's stop here and recap before it gets even worse.  The original budget in 2006 for 800 miles was $35B and it would done by 2020.  By 2015 the budget for Phase I alone (only 512 miles) was $64B and it wouldn't be done until 2028.  So only a portion of the project for double the cost and 8 years late.  Not bad for govt.  Sure, if a private company screwed up this badly they would fire people left and right and probably go belly up.....but Gov Moonbeam kept getting reelected.  But wait, believe  it or not it actually gets worse.

• By 2016 the cost for Phase I was increased to $77B and wouldn't be done until 2038 or later.  Portions that were under construction were wildly over budget and behind schedule.
• Other estimates put the cost for Phase I at closer to $98B and O&M costs at $1B per year minimum.

So the current Guv of the state finally pulled the plug on this incredibly stupid idea and another glaring monument to the incompetence and wastefulness of govt.  And She Guevera wants to build these all over the country and replace airline travel.  And think about it, the high speed rail time from SF to LA was 3 hours versus 1 hour in an airliner.  And they would have to sell $1B a year in tickets just to cover O&M, not including the debt service which would be close to $100B over 30 years.  And that doesn't even begin to address the threat we face from farting cows.  You can't make this stuff up.  This is not from the Onion or Babylon Bee.  It's real life and why we can't trust Democrats to have the levers of power.