Sac Bee: Dismantle High Speed Rail Authority and start over (Sacramento: live, price)

[18Montclair]

Bravo!

Why not acknowledge California's fiscal constraints and propose something realistic?

The High-Speed Rail Authority has spent more than $800 million of public funding over the past 14 years and hasn't produced a single mile of service or lined up a single private investor. The agency has set back the cause of high-speed rail nationally, and made itself a poster child for government incompetence...

Gov. Jerry Brown's unquestioning support of the destructive agency, upon release of its new plan, may be the final fatal blow to the controversial project. The $98 billion price tag for the project ballooned 300 percent from the $32 billion promised voters in 2008, and reveals that the governor's new team never reined in the engineers. Most of the price escalation was not increased unit costs, but new capital added in the past two years, including $14 billion in new elevated structures and $10 billion in tunnels since the 2009 business plan...

The California Rail Foundation fervently believes high-speed rail must be part of California's future. We are equally convinced that the High-Speed Rail Authority is incapable of delivering a viable project. The time has come to shut down this agency and seek competitive proposals from private industry...

Viewpoints: Dismantle High-Speed Rail Authority and start over - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Yes, this sounds like a solution.

[DarkWolf]

Is it really necessary to create a HSR thread for every article posted? Its becoming ridiculous...just make one whiny thread...

[randian]

The HSR Authority isn't the problem (though it is a problem). HSR itself is the problem.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Since we're into second runs, and with DNA and biotech being what it is, I wonder if there is any Pat Brown DNA still around, if you get my drift.

Now HE was the master of infrastructure (Reagan being distant runner up based on his cuts).

[EclecticEars]

The more I learn about the HSR Authority, the more I think it should be dismantled. This article puts the nail in the coffin for me.

[Bulldogdad]

You people want to get rid of it vote out the politicians that support it. Sheesh its that easy.

Dumb Cathleen Galgiani in 2012 for those of you in her district, one of the biggest backers of this monstrosity and other horrible legislation.

[NorCal Dude]

Moonbeam 2.0

Same guy that thought we did not need to expand the freeway system...

[Huckleberry3911948]

i was just in japan they got lots of bus lines, cheap easy and quick to put in and very easy to subcontract.
its the mexican way its the japanese modern way. mass rail is yet another obama mega debt pork barrel project.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

i was just in japan they got lots of bus lines, cheap easy and quick to put in and very easy to subcontract.
its the mexican way its the japanese modern way. mass rail is yet another obama mega debt pork barrel project.

Japan has a large Rail network , they only use buses to connect things.... The good thing if this cancelled , the Republicans said the Northeast would get all the $$$... I doubt you were really in Japan , most people who go there come back with a different mind set on Transit...

[StandingLenticular]

I would use HSR. I have friends and family stacked up an down the state and I *hate* flying. I know there are tons of issues involved with building it, but once built, I'd use it. Just sayin.