Gee. Who didn't see this coming? http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-crisis-20180121-story.html
The politicians and proponents of this disaster. How many millions or maybe billions have so far been spent on "studies" and other stuff like environmental impact?
Memories of Boston's Big Dig promoted by Teddy Kennedy. It had been budgeted for $2.8 Billion in the early 80's. It's final cost was $14.6 Billion in 2006. The current estimate is that the bonds won't be paid off until 2038, assuming repayment revenue remains steady.
I'm thinking too of New Mexico's Rail Runner service which opened in 2006 and cost nearly $500 Million to connect Albuquerque to Santa Fe, 60 Miles apart. Ridership is down 23% in the last 5 Years and debt service is expected to balloon to $110 million in 2026 (up from about $28 million today) and the train takes longer than driving. It was a hairbrained project when it was announced. I have family in NM and having visited there several times, the vision a half-billion dollar train paralleling I-25 in open country was completely idiotic to me.
