When Schwarzenegger, who admits he lied to us about the costs of a train to nowhere and the ridership, sold us the scam called High Speed Rail, he said it would cost $33 billion and be finished by 2024. Now we know the cost is closer to $150 billion, almost no riders, can not operate due to lack of funds. Almost every day a new massive cost is added. Where will the money come from?
“A new environmental report sets a $19 billion price tag to bring California’s bullet train to the Bay Area, 40% higher than the state High-Speed Rail Authority’s latest business plan penciled in — and far more than is available for the long-beleaguered project.
The dramatic cost hike is detailed in the report released Friday that completes the environmental clearance process for the agency’s preferred path to the Bay Area — a 90-mile segment connecting Merced County to San Jose. The route would run through the core of San Jose and on to Gilroy before entering a 13.5-mile tunnel in the Pacheco Pass that crosses an active seismic fault. If built, the tunnel – a main driver of the rising projected costs on the project – would be the longest underground railway passage in North America.”
Imagine the lawsuits when they try to create a tunnel in a seismic fault? The greedy cabal of unions, corporations and government have done well for themselves. For the rest of us, there is always the option of moving to a Free State without this much of open corruption.
$19 billion: Cost of high speed rail’s Bay Area link surges in latest report, without funding
Rail authority looks to build longest railway tunnel in North America
By ELIYAHU KAMISHER, Bay Area News Group, 3/1/22
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A new environmental report sets a $19 billion price tag to bring California’s bullet train to the Bay Area, 40% higher than the state High-Speed Rail Authority’s latest business plan penciled in — and far more than is available for the long-beleaguered project.
The dramatic cost hike is detailed in the report released Friday that completes the environmental clearance process for the agency’s preferred path to the Bay Area — a 90-mile segment connecting Merced County to San Jose. The route would run through the core of San Jose and on to Gilroy before entering a 13.5-mile tunnel in the Pacheco Pass that crosses an active seismic fault. If built, the tunnel – a main driver of the rising projected costs on the project – would be the longest underground railway passage in North America.
Costs have skyrocketed since 2008 when voters approved $9.95 billion for high-speed rail on the promise of a two-hour and 40-minute ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Since then the project has morphed into one of California’s most expensive and controversial undertakings, beset by delays and costs that have ballooned from $33 billion to as much as $105 billion for the entire project, according to the authority’s latest business plan.
In the new environmental report, the Central Valley-to-Bay Area link is $5.4 billion more than a base estimate that the rail authority released in a new business plan just three weeks before. And it’s more than $2.5 billion higher than a draft environmental report released in 2020. The authority blames rising inflation and higher land costs as chief reasons for the spiraling price tag.
Boris Lipkin, the Northern California regional director for the rail service, said the environmental report is a worst-case scenario on costs, but he acknowledged the possibility of a “more expensive” project. “Part of the reason we want to advance design (of the segment) further is to get a better grasp on exactly what the costs will be,” he said.
But Elizabeth Alexis, a co-founder of the group Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design, said the latest price tag is likely low-balled because the cost estimates assume the rail line is ready for construction.
“They’re saying if we could prepay this thing today it would be $19 billion,” said Alexis. “But it’s not apples to apples, using any kind of realistic schedule it’s well over $23 billion.”
The authority lacks funding to build the San Jose to Merced segment, along with any other segment outside of a 119-mile link that is under construction and will be extended to eventually connect Merced to Bakersfield.
The biggest source of high-speed rail funding is currently revenue from California’s cap and trade program, which forces companies to buy greenhouse gas credits based on how much they pollute. Gov. Gavin Newsom is also looking to allocate $4.2 billion in bond funds already approved for high-speed rail, however, some leading Democratic lawmakers have opposed the money for the Central Valley segment.
The federal government has funded the bullet train to the tune of $2.5 billion in 2009 and nearly $1 billion the following year. Meanwhile, HSR officials are hopeful that they can secure some of the $10 billion included for high-speed rail under President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan — if the bill is ever passed by the Senate.
In late April the board of the California High-Speed Rail Authority will consider the new environmental report and is expected to greenlight a route for the bullet train. Although the board will consider four potential routes, each one includes the same massive tunnel portion. The agency selected its preferred route in 2019, which it says is the cheapest and least disruptive path.
Meanwhile, James Eggers, who heads the Loma Prieta Chapter chapter of the Sierra Club, said his organization has long contended that the Pacheco Pass route should be abandoned for a path to the Bay Area through the Altamont Pass arguing that the current line would disturb sensitive wetlands among other issues. The organization may consider suing over the latest report, he said.
Instead of building a dedicated high-speed rail track in San Jose, the authority’s preferred path will share tracks with Caltrain, which will slow the train’s top speed from 220 mph to 110 mph, but will require significantly fewer residential displacements. The preferred route will commandeer nearly 23 acres of private land, including an estimated 68 residential units, according to the report.
The most difficult segment of the project will be the 13.5-mile tunnel that traverses an unpredictable mix of shale and dense metamorphic rock.
“This whole program is a series of megaprojects,” said Lipkin. “And out of our megaprojects, this is probably the biggest of them.”
If built, the tunnel would far surpass Canada’s 9.1-mile Mount Macdonald Tunnel, which is the longest railway tunnel in North America. Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel is the world’s longest rail tunnel at over 35 miles.
The authority’s current timeline has bullet trains running into San Jose by 2031, but delays are ubiquitous on transportation projects and the estimate assumes the agency will have funding lined up for high-speed rail, which has turned into a political football in Sacramento.
“I would say that the more likely (timeline) would be later into the 2030s,” Lipkin said.
