Posted by Old Ben, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 1:41 pm

The taxpayers are entitled to recover every penny spent on this obvious scam.

Posted by Margaret, a resident of the Willowgate neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 2:05 pm

Please, let us have a do-over on the vote.

Posted by Otto Maddox, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 2:28 pm

Now that the truth about this boon doggle is there for all the world to see, how long until it's finally shut down and we (the taxpayers) quit throwing money into a losing proposition?

While I am confident not a single mile of track will ever be laid for this.. money is still being wasted "studying" things and holding meetings and hiring consultants and blah blah blah.

Good economy or bad it's still a massive waste of money.

Posted by Steve, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 3:08 pm

How surprising. The railway to tomorrowland is overbudget, and likely doomed. How much was it we blew on Fantasy-Mountain View-of-the-Future sketches?

Posted by Kman, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 3:53 pm

Agreed, what a waste. Lets face it, the government does not know how to run a business. If the government was a business it would of closed a long time ago. This HSR is like the pension system they use, keeps on ballooning exponentially every year.

Posted by Seer, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2011 at 9:26 pm

The only think about HSR that is a "waste" is this particular project's management and planning. The Europeans and the Chinese are building HSR at lightning speed, and spending a tiny fraction of what we're spending. What's the difference? A national culture that support public transport without every NIMBY starting a lawsuit, governmental experience in building and administering it, and of course, more experience in general. I'm sure their first projects were a tough sell and expensive. So why not leverage their experience and have them build it for us? Based on some budgeting reports from Germany, our system should cost close to the original budget.

Posted by Old Ben, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2011 at 12:02 pm

Apples and oranges. The Europeans and the Chinese don't have the level of corruption we have here. This thing has been a scam from the very start. The taxpayers should get a full refund of every penny spent.

Posted by George, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2011 at 2:32 pm

Gee, do ya suppose that the original scam wasn't honestly priced ???

Vote Every friggen elected official out, again and again until we get honest WORKING folks in office that have run a business. No More "Career" politicians.. They are virtually ALL only thinking of brass tablets and public acclaim and the next election results... Send them all back to real work. From City Council to the White House. How many payrolls have any of them met ?

Dump the tracks to nowhere.

Posted by Really?, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2011 at 3:04 pm

"the Chinese don't have the level of corruption we have here"

Are you kidding?

Posted by Steve, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Perhaps replace 'corruption' with 'incompetence', or maybe 'stupidity'.

Posted by Hardin, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2011 at 6:18 pm

"The Europeans and the Chinese are building HSR at lightning speed, and spending a tiny fraction of what we're spending. What's the difference?"

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The differences abound.

1. China, has an abundance of cash, and is desperately trying to find ways to spend it or invest it. As a side note, notice the safety and quality flaws they are experiencing now with their system. California is currently in the red, with no prospects of that changing in the near or long term.

2. European countries are tiny in comparison to the distances that would need to be covered in the US, even in California.

3. European countries do not have a car-centric culture, to the degree that the US has, which has influenced public policy and planning. Relatively speaking, gas is still really cheap here.

4. Having China or any other foreign entity build the HSR for us would not substantially lower costs (material costs, right of way acquisition), and would also route many needed dollars out of the state's economy into a foreign country. Let's remember that one of the benefits of large public projects is that they stimulate the local economy, by injecting dollars.

As you can see, the solution to the problems we're facing with transportation are not so one dimensional that simply spending a bunch of money to lay down tracks across the state will fix it.

This is certainly not a case of "If you build it, they will come."

Posted by Old Ben, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2011 at 9:02 pm

Here's a very practical idea:

Web Link