California high speed rail

[hokie66]

Not sure if this is a failure or disaster, but it's a boondoggle.

Trump admin pulls plug on $4B for California's 'train to nowhere' project

U.S. Transportation Department cancels $4 billion for California's high-speed rail after review found zero miles of track laid in 10 years and ballooning costs.

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[TugboatEng]

The foamers are gonna foam.

 

[spsalso]

Here is the review, for your reading pleasure and edification:


https://www.transportation.gov/site...tter Enclosure to Mr. Ian Choudri 6.4.25.pdf



spsalso

 

[JStephen]

I was riding my bike around a couple of weeks ago, and found myself on a nice road that terminated at a closed gate. I assume it was the main road going into the Superconducting Supercollider or whatever it was they were building here in north Texas 20 or 30 years ago.
To keep spending money on something like this is stupid.
To get it half-built and then cancel it is also stupid.
So I'm not sure which stupid option is better or worse, or which I'd vote for, to be honest.

 

[SWComposites]

the money quote: "What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere. In essence, CHSRA has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time. ... There is no indication that such renegotiations and costly change orders, necessitated by CHSRA’s failure to manage this project effectively, will ever stop."

 

[SWComposites]

To get it half-built and then cancel it is also stupid.

its not even 1% built. the whole thing was insane from day one.

 

[stcbus]

the money quote: "What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere. In essence, CHSRA has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time. ... There is no indication that such renegotiations and costly change orders, necessitated by CHSRA’s failure to manage this project effectively, will ever stop."

Certainly not the only issue but the baseless lawsuits by the counties for clear eminent domain set them back years. The judicial system is slow.

 

[stcbus]

I’d say Texas quietly giving up after 3B in taxpayer dollars for their border wall that everyone told them was stupid would qualify too (or hell, the whole first term’s border wall that was definitely finished and Mexico definitely paid for)

With only 8% built, Texas quietly defunds state border wall program

Texas officials suggested the federal government could pick up construction. However, during President Trump’s first term, his administration built about one-third of what the state was able to put up in the same amount of time.

www.texastribune.org

 

[Brian Malone]

I would have ridden high-speed rail instead of flying to the SF Bay area and southern California so I was hoping this thing would happen. So, those of you who have managed/planned/designed large public works /infrastructure projects, what puts the boon in the doggle? Where have the wheels come off the tracks?