And in Crazy Train news.

[gotbeer]

California High-Speed Rail Authority bridge issue – CHSRA responds

They can't even build the bridges right.

[gotbeer]

Delays plague high-speed rail bridge near Madera. What’s gone wrong in construction?

Quote

Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons is the contractor hired to build Construction Package 1, a 31-mile stretch of the rail route from north of Madera to south of Fresno. When the contract was approved in 2013, it was valued at just under $1 billion. Delays and change orders in the intervening seven years have driven the price to more than double, at $2.2 billion, of which about $1.2 billion has been spent as of July.

 

 

[gotbeer]

Oh, and FYI.  who is Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons?  

Lowest Bidder on First Leg of Bullet-Train Has History of Cost Overruns and Litigation

So, taking the $100 million dollar lower bid has cost the taxpayers $1.1 billion and counting.

[Tank]

[gotbeer]

Digest: California pushes back date for start of high speed rail operations

Yay. 

Quote

That segment is now expected to cost $13.i billion, up from the previous $12.4 billion estimate. 

Yeah right.  Excuses are like assholes, everyone has one.  

Quote

The COVID-19 pandemic is part of the reason, Kelly wrote in a letter, saying it has led to worker quarantines, delayed right-of-way procurement, and cost the project expected revenue from the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program.

 

[Jay]

woops, we lost revenue from cap-and-trade due to the pandemic.

[gotbeer]

Lol at made up sound numbers.

California high speed rail project's future in hands of state legislature

This thing needs to die.  The sooner the better.

[AngelsLongBall]

I have no faith in our legislators to make the correct decision and end this boondoggle. 

[arch stanton]

4 hours ago, AngelsLongBall said:

I have no faith in our legislators to make the correct decision and end this perfect vehicle for funneling tax money to their preferred donors and business supporters 

 

[gotbeer]

California Bullet Train Project Reportedly Facing Additional Delays

That's actually pretty impressive.  In a massively incompetent way.

Quote

Delays in securing land for California's high-speed rail project will push completion of a 65-mile section of the line in Kings County until at least April 2025 — nearly two years after the date the state included in a business plan adopted last week, a newspaper reported Monday.

 

[RallyMo]

Holy crap. This is so dumb. Just cancel it.

[Lhalo]

And miss out on all that .gov money? Never.

[gotbeer]

/sigh.  Typical incompetent government move.  If it doesn't work, throw more money at it.

Newsom budget proposes $11B for transit, focusing on bullet train and L.A. Olympics

[tdawg87]

11 billion?

Sweet fucking jesus. 

Not to beat the dead horse but that could put 68k towards feeding and housing every homeless person in California.

[gotbeer]

4 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

11 billion?

Sweet fucking jesus. 

Not to beat the dead horse but that could put 68k towards feeding and housing every homeless person in California.

Hell no.  I guess you haven't heard.  The first round of permanent housing for the homeless cost Lol Angelelinos' over $700k per unit.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

Why not just ship em out to Barstow? How much could a tent city out there really cost? It would probably help the local economy.

I'm not sure why they feel the homeless need brand new luxury apartments with an ocean view.

[gotbeer]

1 minute ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Why not just ship em out to Barstow? How much could a tent city out there really cost? It would probably help the local economy.

That's cruel punishment, according to the social elite.  Not that every municipality is probably paying for one way tickets to Lol Angeles for their homeless.  But if we do it, it's evil.

[AngelsLakersFan]

4 minutes ago, gotbeer said:

That's cruel punishment, according to the social elite.  Not that every municipality is probably paying for one way tickets to Lol Angeles for their homeless.  But if we do it, it's evil.

I rarely see them in Glendale... I'm not sure what our police are doing but the homeless seem to know to keep away.

[gotbeer]

1 hour ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

I rarely see them in Glendale... I'm not sure what our police are doing but the homeless seem to know to keep away.

Arrest and enforce laws is the way to go.  That's why Beverly Hills and Santa Monica and even Culver City do not have a homeless problem.  But LA and places like Venice do.  

[gotbeer]

Digest: News report says official leaves California high speed rail agency after investigation

Quote

Chief Operating Officer Joe Hedges left the agency as of Tuesday following an investigation that began last year with an anonymous letter claiming Hedges overruled decisions by employees and awarded unmerited payments to contractors.   The chairman of the authority’s board said the investigation determined that no fraud had occurred, but that certain processes be changed. 

 

[Don]

On 5/26/2021 at 11:56 AM, gotbeer said:

Digest: News report says official leaves California high speed rail agency after investigation

 

It's cool. If we just throw like another 8 billion dollars at this one more time, then wait like 12-16 years there's a real solid chance we'll get a decently fast train from Palmdale to Bakersfield. And that will be so worth it. 

[Don]

Just now, cals said:

What’s this “we” shit?  Don’t you live in the Midwest?

I became emotionally invested in the project as a child in SoCal. Plus, the more people from Palmdale that get to experience the beauty of Bakersfield the better.

[Don]

To be fair, they're both shitholes. Just one has the added excitement of being very dangerous. Well... wait. They're both shitholes, and both offer the added excitement of being very dangerous, but one has the added bonus of also being hot as fuck. Well... wait.

[RallyMo]

I'm not gonna read this thread, so I'll just ask:

are we back on for the full train route?

[gotbeer]

28 minutes ago, lolok said:

I'm not gonna read this thread, so I'll just ask:

are we back on for the full train route?

No.  They can't figure out how to get to LA from Bakersfield.  And they are going to use shared freight lines in San Jose.