California High-Speed Rail Authority
California’s high-speed rail project is a lesson in the inefficiency of big government. The project was started nearly twenty years ago and they have not even started laying down tracks.
One of the reasons it’s in the news right now is because it has gone way over budget and the people in charge are looking for alternate forms of funding.
The current CEO, who came on board last summer, is now claiming that the project might be finished in twenty years. That would be the year 2045.
The Associated Press reports:
California high-speed rail leader pushes state to support private investment
A long-delayed project promising nonstop rail service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours may be able to secure the private funding it desperately needs if California agrees to pay the investors back, its chief executive told The Associated Press.
Ian Choudri, who was appointed CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority in August, is tasked with reinvigorating the nation’s largest infrastructure project amid skyrocketing costs and new fears that the Trump administration could pull $4 billion in federal funding.
“We started this one, and we are not succeeding,” Choudri said, describing what drew him to the job after work on high-speed systems in Europe…
California’s construction is far from completion. Of the 119 miles (192 kilometers) of construction underway in the Central Valley, only a 22-mile (35-kilometer) stretch is ready for the track-laying phase, which isn’t set to start until next year.
Finishing the line in the Valley is just the first step. Next, the train has to extend north toward the San Francisco Bay Area and south toward Los Angeles. Choudri’s goal within the next 20 years is to build to Gilroy, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
The folks at RedState commented on this:
Keep in mind that the above timeline is based on somehow convincing private investors to set their money on fire. If California can’t get any wealthy benefactors to play along, then the cash flow is going to run out, and taxpayers will be left holding the bag. Right now, about $4 billion in federal funding also hangs in the balance, and President Donald Trump has plenty of incentive to pull it…
And rest assured, this is a failure of California’s Democratic ruling class. In Florida, a similar high-speed rail project between Orlando and Miami was started in 2014 and completed in just four years. The total cost was only $6 billion. Meanwhile, California is projecting that over $100 billion will need to be spent to finish its high-speed rail line.
One-party rule by Democrats has done so much damage to California. This high speed rail debacle is just another reminder of that fact.
