California High Speed Rail Thread

[Busy Bee]

^This is true. I stopped giving the public credit on 11-9-16.

[The North One]

Transportation Department follows through on threat after state scaled back plans for troubled project

By Ted Mann and Alejandro Lazo
Updated May 16, 2019 4:55 p.m. ET

The Trump administration made good on its threat to cancel nearly $1 billion in funding for California’s troubled high-speed rail project after Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would scale back its scope.

In a letter Thursday to the head of the California High Speed Rail Authority, Federal Railroad Administrator Ronald Batory confirmed the move the administration had floated in February, officially terminating the Transportation Department’s agreement to provide an additional $928.6 million to help pay for the project.

...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-a...il-11558034243

welp

[Pedestrian]

^^Newsome asked for this when he changed the concept of the project. He should have expected it and he needs to deal with it.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

^^Newsome asked for this when he changed the concept of the project. He should have expected it and he needs to deal with it.

Newsom is an idiot who should have never won the election.

[202_Cyclist]

Car(e)-Free LA and Pedestrian-- I agree with you but this is absolute bullshit.

The illegitimate, lawless, Trump regime also is continuing to withhold funding for the important Gateway project. Shame!

[NikolasM]

Trump is the greatest infrastructure president of all time. All time. We've got like 15 miles of wall going up on the border. We've got um, er, hmmm.

[yakumoto]

I would have gotten up in arms about this years ago, but I think its pretty obvious as a state we don't have the capacity to take care of our existing infrastructure let alone to take on large scale projects.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by yakumoto

I would have gotten up in arms about this years ago, but I think its pretty obvious as a state we don't have the capacity to take care of our existing infrastructure let alone to take on large scale projects.

With adequate funding help from the federal government, this project can and will be built. Since the nation and quite realistically world depend on Trump not being re-elected I think California can expect a large funding commitment in 2 years under a Democratic administration.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by NikolasM

Trump is the greatest infrastructure president of all time. All time. We've got like 15 miles of wall going up on the border. We've got um, er, hmmm.

"Rebuilt" existing wall planned and approved under the previous administration. Since Trump is driven by animosity towards Obama and an unquenchable thirst to claim credit and be glorified, that must secretly drive him crazy.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

"Rebuilt" existing wall planned and approved under the previous administration. Since Trump is driven by animosity towards Obama and an unquenchable thirst to claim credit and be glorified, that must secretly drive him crazy.

Wait...Obama approved a racist and immoral wall, but no one complained then, why?

[yakumoto]

Its not a lack of money, its our states physical capacity as a governing body, coordination, labor pool, etc, the money just goes down a black hole getting siphoned off by sub-sub-sub-contractors. Something like the transbay terminal mess should have been a warning but I feel like its going to take a bridge collapse for people to "get" it

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

With adequate funding help from the federal government, this project can and will be built. Since the nation and quite realistically world depend on Trump not being re-elected I think California can expect a large funding commitment in 2 years under a Democratic administration.

The Democratic Party has a supermajority in the state assembly, continuous rule since 1970, current Democratic governor and plenty of past dem governors. They can’t get their act together, can’t clean up their own mess.
But it’s all Trump’s fault and everything will be fine as soon as my state gives them more money to spend. Like we don’t have our own infrastructure to pay for.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Car(e)-Free LA

Newsom is an idiot who should have never won the election.

I think you spelled Dotard wrong. Looks like the idiots squatting in the WH are doing what they do "best", trolling anyplace in the U.S. that's remotely prosperous and non-medieval in outlook.

Here in NY-NJ, Dotard's clown car DOT has given exact $0 to replacing a collapsing rail tunnel that's the busiest on the planet, which is the most important link to the largest business district on the planet, and which serves a region encompassing around 10% of the entire U.S. GDP.

DOT Secretary Chou (McConnell's wife) was actually quoted saying it wasn't a federal priority. It "only" serves 600,000 commuters daily (well over twice the passenger load of Atlanta Hartsfield, busiest airport on earth). But hey, trolls gotta troll.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Wait...Obama approved a racist and immoral wall, but no one complained then, why?

For the same reason most didn't complain about his deportation program, which was the largest and most successful, because it was effective. Focusing on actual criminals instead of a sadistic and abhorrent preoccupation with de-humanizing migrants and making their lives miserable as a cruel deterrent.

A short section in existence at least since the 1980s. He approved the renovation of an existing section. Nice try. But you already know all of that. You get a little thrill in your belly being a contrarian goober.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by aaron38

The Democratic Party has a supermajority in the state assembly, continuous rule since 1970, current Democratic governor and plenty of past dem governors. They can’t get their act together, can’t clean up their own mess.
But it’s all Trump’s fault and everything will be fine as soon as my state gives them more money to spend. Like we don’t have our own infrastructure to pay for.

What does this have to do with anything? Are you talking about Illinois? I'm confused. Is it your position that a massive federal infrastructure bill shouldn't include a large amount to advance the California program if it also funds high speed, regional and commuter rail projects across the country?

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I think you spelled Dotard wrong. Looks like the idiots squatting in the WH are doing what they do "best", trolling anyplace in the U.S. that's remotely prosperous and non-medieval in outlook.

Here in NY-NJ, Dotard's clown car DOT has given exact $0 to replacing a collapsing rail tunnel that's the busiest on the planet, which is the most important link to the largest business district on the planet, and which serves a region encompassing around 10% of the entire U.S. GDP.

DOT Secretary Chou (McConnell's wife) was actually quoted saying it wasn't a federal priority. It "only" serves 600,000 commuters daily (well over twice the passenger load of Atlanta Hartsfield, busiest airport on earth). But hey, trolls gotta troll.

I couldn't agree more, but a Governor Antonio Villaraigosa would clearly be better for HSR.

[TWAK]

So are we gonna get left out of the infrastructure bill that's supposed to be coming, or do we get the money that we now owe to the feds waived?
It's now an actual debacle, before it was a slow-moving huge project that was actually starting to get built.....

[WrightCONCEPT]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

^^Newsom asked for this when he changed the concept of the project. He should have expected it and he needs to deal with it.

Absolutely and I think this was intentional so that Newsom can point to Trump for the blame- playing Chicken with him- to stop the project rather than his own words which were completely uncalled for. If it was about keeping costs inline, that is appropriate and should have left the conversation at that to making sure we are "delivering what the voters supported".

However the other bits in Newsom's State of the State address was about screwing Southern California and keeping this project to help out with the gentrification and commuter cities with affordable housing his "rent control policy" buddies in the Bay Area. And I don't think a change in the administration will change the fact that he's essentially backing away from the project. Newsom needs to own up to that.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Wait...Obama approved a racist and immoral wall, but no one complained then, why?

Some people don't seem to realize that Obama's "hope and change" campaign back in 08 was a lie. Obama was a center-right establishment democrat who fucked over the people behind their backs.

Obama was very pro-high speed rail though.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by The North One

Some people don't seem to realize that Obama's "hope and change" campaign back in 08 was a lie. Obama was a center-right establishment democrat who fucked over the people behind their backs.

Obama was very pro-high speed rail though.

Obama was a Centrist no doubt about that. I've never heard anyone describe his campaign initiatives as a lie. I believe he wanted to accomplish most of what he spoke of but was incredibly naive to think the GOP and the right wing hate machine were going to cooperate, with what was obviously a very profitable industry of Obama hysteria encouraging absolute obstruction. He even went so far as to try to get Republican support by proposing a Republican health care reform program. They rejected their own health care proposal as socialist, communist, Hitler, death panels and other assorted nonsense only possible in this ridiculously uninformed country of ours. He also wasn't planning on inheriting the most serious economic downturn in 80 years. That will put a hamper in any presidents intentions and I believe we owe him for having the wisdom to do the things necessary to keep the world from plummeting into a global depression. I'm not sure what people he was "fucking over behind their backs". Deportations? The lack of DOJ prosecution of Wall St? When you're being told how fragile the economy is you would probably lay off too if in his position. Not saying that's what he should have done. But that's what happened for better or for worse. The history books will judge Obama very positively regardless of how much he disappointed the left of the Democrat party especially economic leftists like myself.

And yes, Obama, like Biden as well, are true believers in high speed rail and had his 2 terms produced a serious dedicated infrastructure program outside of the emergency stimulus and Tiger grants, we would have seen much more solid progress with true HSR in the country. That said he still would have had despicable creatures like Walker and Scott making political hay out of rejecting federal investment in rail on purely ideological grounds and a cornucopia of absurdist concerns over UN control and indoctrination to be more like Europeans. Make no mistake the Republicans are the reason no progress has been made on, well, pretty much everything. And that has little to do with whether Obama was a centrist or a "radical leftist." In America, a president like Obama can be a "radical leftist manchurian candidate" to the ignorants on the right. Blame the ignorants on the right for that instead of whether or not one of the most dignified Presidents the country has had in a century governed a little more conservatively than we had hoped for.