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?

 

[TugboatEng]

Shouldn't the fact that California is suing the federal government over the termination of funding for HSR that does not interconnect states be proof that the state of California is using HSR to steal money from the federal government?

 

[stcbus]

Shouldn't the fact that California is suing the federal government over the termination of funding for HSR that does not interconnect states be proof that the state of California is using HSR to steal money from the federal government?

Are you drunk?

 

[TugboatEng]

No, just hopeful that this boondoggle gets put to rest. I need my potholes repaired.

 

[Brian Malone]

My poking around finds the following claims/explanations for the slow progress on CHSR:
1. Acquiring right-of-way and environmental clearances have delayed the construction phases and used substantial amounts of funding.
2. NYMBYism has greatly delayed the construction of the necessary tunnels, overcrossings and roadbed, and electrification. All must be in place before any track is laid. The track is the easy part.
3. Insufficient funding to secure construction contracts.
4. Underdefined ridership predictions complicated analysis on return on investment and delayed/reduced investment funding.
All the above and other issues caused the project to start prematurely in order to secure funding before a federal grant expiration date. Thus construction has been poorly coordinated and inefficient with extreme overruns and change orders.

So CHSR appears to be a case of poor project management, not a technology hurdle.

 

[Brian Malone]

Pothole repair is a local funding item, right? Federal rail funds would not go to local roads regardless of HSR happening or not. Or are they all connected somehow?

 

[epoxybot]

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?

It all starts with snotty NIMBY San Mateo County. Their goal, all along has been to stall, delay & disrupt the CHSRA project. They didn't want high-speed trains running up and down the San Francisco peninsula. They succeeded in turning the CHSRA into a Lawyer's & Consultants trust fund. Ironically, San Mateo County is home of Rail Baron 'Old Money' but also the home of Venture Capital.
After Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Gov. Jerry Brown secured $400 million in funding from the Federal Railroad Administration, in 2009 for the CHSRA train box, built under the then proposed Salesforce/Transbay Transit Center (completed in Aug 2018); the State of California, quietly passed legislation that insured CHSRA would never roll along the SF peninsula.
SF Mayor Gavin Newsom: "We're not building a 2 billion dollar 'Bus Station' on my watch" (It cost $2.2B).
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom: We're not going to build CHSRA to Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro must be exceedingly jealous.

 

[Garbage1]

Discovery should be entertaining!

 

[TugboatEng]

The California way: Create CEQA. CEQA rules force governors to build HSR. HSR planning commences and begins to receive federal and state funding. CEQA rules essentially block construction. Money starts getting funnelled into CEQA compliance. And now here we are.

$14.4 billion has been spent in total. Up to $11 billion of that has gone to compliance. The key is that nothing material has been exchanged. The money is simply no longer in the program. It's money laundering.

Brian, our poorly maintained road.infrastructure is not just on local roads but also includes the state highways.

 

[Brian Malone]

CSHR looks like it was doomed to fail from the start!

 

[spsalso]

So if the powers that be didn't want high speed rail into San Francisco, why was high speed rail money spent to electrify it?

spsalso

 

[TugboatEng]

It wasn't doomed. It did exactly what it was intended to do. It transferred $11 billion from government coffers into private hands without having to submit for competitive bids. Studies don't require bidding, right?

Electrify what? HSR? That was just another hurdle added so that they spend more money on studies and not have to buy anything. There never was anything to electrify.