Journalists are now questioning every aspect of the project. The latest story [in the LOS ANGELES TIMES!] is that “doubts [are being] cast on cost estimates” for the alternative to high-speed rail, which is better highways and airports. I pointed this out back in 2008 in a Cato report showing that the highway-airport alternative did far more to reduce congestion than the high-speed rail line, suggesting that a highway-airport alternative that accomplished the same congestion reduction as the rail line would have cost much less.
What raises doubts now is the way the cost of the alternative has crept up. When the authority was insisting that the rail line could be built for $43 billion, its highway-airport alternative was estimated to cost $100 billion. When the rail cost jumped to nearly $100 billion, the highway-airport cost mysteriously increased to $171 billion. “There is some dishonesty in the methodology,” says a University of California, Berkeley transportation engineer. “I don’t trust an estimate like this.”
Here’s the full article with lots of links — and there’s more below ammo below this first piece!
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/is-california-high-speed-rail-dead/
High-Speed Platinum Contracts
JAN. 13, 2012
By KATY GRIMES
It’s like a runaway train pushing a side a cow on the tracks. Controversy over the $98.5 billion-dollar-and-growing price tag? Move aside! The California High-Speed Rail Authority held a seemingly “regular” monthly meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday. But the real story was a brewing controversy about an obscure, costly proposal for the high-profile project, which could add to the already skyrocketing costs to build a High-Speed Rail system in the state.
AB 1254, authored by Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, would require that a minimum of 25 percent of the workforce used at each worksite be from the local workforce. And it would require that a minimum of 25 percent of the aggregate dollar amount of contracts awarded be subject to project labor agreements.
Forget the free market and competitive bidding. High-Speed Rail could be constructed using more expensive, “platinum” union contractors, if AB 1254 is passed. Prevailing wages and union labor contracts could become the roadblock to non-union private sector contractors working on high-speed rail construction.
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/01/13/high-speed-platinum-contracts/
And well they should doubt! Gov. Moonbeam would love to have the rail project for jobs to unions, however the cost is prohibitive. Especially in a state that’s prone to those little things like earthquakes.
If this project goes forward, the taxpayer will be paying through the nose for years with cost overruns just like those in Boston’s Big Dig. And CA just can’t afford it.
When the rail cost jumped to nearly $100 billion, the highway-airport cost mysteriously increased to $171 billion. “There is some dishonesty in the methodology,” says a University of California, Berkeley transportation engineer. “I don’t trust an estimate like this.”
WOW! Do ya think!
This is business-as-usual for the “great” state of California. No wonder we are in a state fiscal insanity and headed for economic ruin.
News Tip: OCCUPY STOCKTON!
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/11/Protest-Stockton-Ugly