kryptos:
Quote:
We have a governor who cuts public safety to save money, releases thousands of prisoners to save money, cuts funding for schools and closes state parks to save money, even stops state employees from cell phone usage, but wants to spend 100 BILLION on a train...
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Under Dan Richard, the California High Speed Rail Authority has taken many steps to reduce the estimated cost to $68B from the $100B (admittedly more than the original $40B). It does this by using existing infrastructure in the Bay Area and Southern California, specifically by electrifying Caltrain track and using the Metrolink tracks in Southern California. Because of the use of this existing infrastructure, the Initial Operating System will now extend from Merced to Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley (
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_203...n-gets-support ). This can no longer be described as a train-to-nowhere in any fairness.
It is estimated that the entire Interstate Highway System cost between $400B and $500B to complete. Was all of this money available in 1956 when Eisenhower first proposed this? Of course not. The highway system was built in sections and funded as money became available through the gas tax. This gas tax is also insufficient to maintain the interstate highway system now. The federal highway trust fund is bankrupt and has needed to be bailed out by the general fund (i.e. subsidies) by $7B - $8B for each of the past four years.