CA HSR advances at snail’s gallop, leaving trail of wasted taxpayer dollars

California’s high-speed rail ambitions are again delayed; what else is new? The initial length of CA’s “doomed” bullet train project will likely not be completed until 2030 or later. What’s more, the total cost has surged up to $128 billion ($95 bil added since voters gave the green light in 2008). The Daily Breeze editorial team urges legislators to publicly oppose the “complete disaster of a project,” against which rail experts and the private sector alike are united already.

First, the initial stretch being worked on to link Bakersfield and Merced probably won’t even be ready by 2030, as the rail authority said would be the case last year.

Now, the HSRA says that segment could be operational sometime between 2030 and 2033.

For reference, when voters were pitched a bond measure to finance the high-speed rail project back in 2008, they were told the bullet train would be ready to go by 2020.  Instead, Californians can expect to be able to take the bullet train from Bakersfield to Merced if they really, really want to. In 10 years.

But that’s not all. Now, the HSRA expects the bullet train project will cost upward of $128 billion, a 13% increase from estimates given last year.

For reference, when the bullet train was being championed in 2008, Californians were told the bullet train project would cost as little as $33 billion to link Los Angeles and San Francisco.

That’s less than the current cost to build the Bakersfield to Merced line.

In other words, Californians were promised a $33 billion project linking Los Angeles and San Francisco but for $35.3 billion they might end up with a Bakersfield to Merced train sometime in 2030 to 2033.

This article originally appeared in the Daily Breeze. Read the whole thing here.

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity