Friday, February 9, 2018

My Comment in the ABC News (Fresno, L.A.) reporting (circa Feb. 1, 2018)  of Calif. State Senators' Patterson and Beall's successful request to the legislature to audit (again) the CHSRA boondoggle follows:

Actually, the mentioned $65-$68B cost is only the CHSRA (disinformation amount to confuse drive-by superficial news coverage) number used for HSR from Bakersfield to San Jose. 

As noted, the original 2008 Prop. 1A $40B amount was a complete voter's sucker fraud, as usual for most rail projects.

The previous $98B estimate was to LA (Lancaster) before the exponential cost of going *through* the Tehachapi's, now is up to an unknown huge amount.  The published $68B amount does *not* include SF Bay Area's deadly and capability limited SJ-to-SF Caltrain HSR "upgrade", nor the $2B-3B *estimated* tunneling to SF's new Transbay downtown skyscraper terminal. 
The monies for this horrible fraudulent HSR boondoggle could be better used for Ca's safety net needs for children, seniors, disabled, mentally ill, and education K-12, UC and CSU tuition reduction, etc etc. 

For transportation, finishing electrified, grade separated BART around the SF Bay is better spent, moves more people, with more frequency, safer, quieter, and zero cross-traffic congestion at no more than the $12B current HSR cost.  Future cost diversions to SoCal's Coaster and Metro systems could save lives and speed train and eliminated cross traffic congestion delays and pollution with more separated grade crossings.  

Improving and expanding CA's *real* mass (moves tens of millions daily) road transportation system and safety (where possible) is also a better use of tax/bond dollars than the limited number of HSR construction and operations workers, HSR riders, and very limited HSR destinations. 

Buyout of existing Toll Roads and toll lanes to stop exorbitant per mile fees for SOVs and other users that can exceed by well 20 times the average less-than $.05/mile CA state motor vehicle fees and taxes that the average car, truck motorist pays on non-toll roads is a better use of HSR funds.
Using diverted planned HSR funds to improve commerce, holiday, work/trade vehicles, buses, vans, passenger cars, heavy utility and trade corridors for cargo trucks, emergency vehicles, and all other of millions of unionized and non-union road users of all driving ages that would fund these.
Others suggest that wasting of well over $100B (some estimates of HSR from San Diego to Sacramento would actually exceed $300B) deprives many of vital and urgent "safety net" needy of critical, basic General Fund dollars.  The annual over $700 millions of dollars just for the current $12B in HSR bonds would longer pay only for their interest, not to mention the initial capital cost, operating cost, and 23% expected millions in tax cost from local train station high density TOD project development taxes.

All this waste, just because Jerry Brown says "I like trains" since he rode on one in his youth over 70 years ago and apparently never had enough of his toy train set growing up.  Incredible!

Road references are copied to my California-oriented "Freemotorist" blog.

Subscriber, member of American Highway Users Alliance and National Motorist Association Foundation, Silicon Valley Electric Vehicle Association, The Newspaper, Mass Transit magazines, and board member of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, and other groups.

No comments:

Post a Comment