It's not an actual worst case scenario.
The worst case scenario would be that that the train gets built on time and on schedule. And then gets extended to Mexico and begins delivering illegal aliens directly to polling places. Or, if you're a lefty, a light rail trail full of illegal gang members crashes into another train full of environment experts. And no one blames Trump.
But the train that is always in trouble... is in trouble again.
The estimated cost of building 119 miles of bullet train track in the Central Valley has jumped to $10.6 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion from the current budget and up from about $6 billion originally.
Don't worry, it'll hit a trillion before they're done.
The new calculation takes into account a number of intractable problems encountered by the state rail agency. It raises profoundly difficult questions about how the state will complete what is considered the nation’s largest infrastructure project with the existing funding sources.
Let me translate that from Prog Bureaucratese to English. "There's no money. We gotta take yours."
“The worst-case scenario has happened,” Hill bluntly told the rail authority’s board at its regular monthly meeting.
Nah. Wait for it.
The sharp increase in projected costs could require the California High Speed Rail Authority to return to the state Legislature for a supplemental appropriation from the bonds that voters approved in 2008. The remaining bonds probably would cover the cost increases, but partly deplete funds for further construction beyond the Central Valley.
Just raise taxes. Dems have a supermajority. There's no way that the working Californians who have been staying away from the polls will be triggered by the junta stealing even more from them.
The sobering news about the cost increases was long forewarned, though rail authority Chairman Dan Richard has consistently rejected those warnings. About a year ago, the Federal Railroad Administration issued a secret risk analysis that said costs were rising sharply and could hit $9.5 to $10 billion.
So they knew about it all along. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
Moore said the surge in costs is likely to foreshadow even greater future increases. On the horizon are more difficult segments, such as the long underground passage through the Tehachapi and San Gabriel Mountains and the route into the urban San Francisco Bay Area.
Trillion dollar train, here we come.
The repayment of the existing bonds will cost about $18 billion in principle and interest over the next 30 years, money that is coming out of the state highway improvement fund.
Meanwhile the freeways are crowded.