Would anyone be shocked that the California high speed rail project is, um, a whole hell of a lot more expensive than it was supposed to be? Ed Morrissey catches the squeal from the Merced Sun Star
Building tracks for the first section of California’s proposed high-speed rail line will cost $2.9 billion to $6.8 billion more than originally estimated, raising questions about the affordability of the nation’s most ambitious rail project at a time when its planning and finances are under fire.
A 2009 business plan developed for the California High-Speed Authority, the entity overseeing the project, estimated costs at about $7.1 billion for the equivalent stretch of tracks. Officials say those estimates were made before detailed engineering work and feedback from communities along the proposed route.
The latest estimates are contained in two environmental impact studies that were shared with The Associated Press before their public release on Tuesday.
Ed has, of course, some great commentary on the subject. But, let’s consider this
Construction of the first stretch of tracks – as much as 140 miles from south of Merced to just north of Bakersfield – is scheduled to begin by September 2012 using $3.5 billion in federal money and an estimated $2.8 billion from the sale of state bonds approved by voters.
Hey, let’s take a look at where those cities lie. Here’s Bakersfield. Here’s Modesto. Oh, sorry, those weren’t the location maps, those were earthquake issues. Here’s a map that shows their relation to each other…oh, sorry, that was a map showing the San Andreas fault. My bad!
Kind of a bad idea to attempt high speed rail in a very seismically active zone, eh? Besides the fact that there really isn’t any reason to run the line from Modesto to Bakersfield (no offense, but, really, LA to SF would have made a bit more sense.
