From: Martin Engel <martinengel_at_(domain_name_was_removed)>
Date: Fri Jul 18 2008 - 08:58:39 PDT

Here are two items picked off the web.

The first is from today's New York Times, by the Associated Press. To remind you, the Boston Big Dig was initially priced at around $4 billion. The recent final cost was $14.6 billion. Oops, they forgot the interest. Now it's $22 billion. As Everett Dirksen famously said, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it runs into real money."

Why is this important to us? Because the lead contractor for the Boston Big Dig was Parsons Brinckerhoff. Who are they? The lead contractor for the intended California High-Speed Train. So, is there more to this story? One of the most aggressive promoters of the high speed train is Rod Diridon. Who is he? The executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute. So? The Insitute receives a great deal of money from, you guessed it, Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Now, the current costs for the high speed train vary from day to day, but the latest total projected cost is $45 billion. That, alone, makes it the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the United States. And, possibly in the world. What will it really cost? It's safe to say that three times that amount is within the ball park. Who will pay for this? Why, the State of California, of course. In short, our tax dollars at work!

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July 18, 2008
NATIONAL BRIEFING | NEW ENGLAND
Massachusetts: Bigger Price for Big Dig
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
State overseers of the Big Dig highway project in Boston said total costs of the project would reach $22 billion, nearly 50 percent higher than the most recent public estimate, but they insisted that no gasoline tax or toll increases were being considered to pay for it. The Boston Globe reported that the $15 billion price tag repeatedly used by the state officials did not include $7 billion in interest. The project will not be paid off until 2038. The Globe said a review of thousands of pages of state documents showed that the huge cost of the project has had a ripple effect on state finances, with the state making $600 million or more a year in payments and diverting money from needed repairs to roads and bridges.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/us/18brfs-BIGGERPRICEF_BRF.html?_r=1&sq=National%20Briefing&st=cse&oref=slogin&scp=3&pagewanted=print

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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Morris Brown, my colleague, found this. Here is one of the rare opposition voices to be heard on the many pro-high-speed train blogs. The author signed his name Jason48. He nailed it!

"Senator Ashburn deserves the legislator star award of the year for having the guts to take on the gang running the California High Speed Rail Authority, which has wasted $58 millions and 8 years, while doing nothing more than designing a project that is intended to enhance the wealth of insiders and allow San Jose and San Francisco control where and how the project is to be built.

The un-holy alliance with Caltrain, seeks to gain free grade crossings and electrification along the peninsula while destroying the communities of San Mateo, Burlingame, Atherton, Menlo Park, San Carlos etc. The Authority doesn't listen to any public comments but just goes on with its own selfish plans.

The cost estimates are un-believable. The project will cost $100 billion, not 40 billion. The ridership will be more like 25 million per year not the projected 117,000,000 per year.

The Senate committee led by Senator Lowenthal issues a 35 page scathing report tearing apart the authority and Kopp, the leader of the Authority, simply wilts under the questioning of Senator Ashburn. Where is your business plan he asks. Kopp can't answer. Ashburn fires off "you don't have a business plan".

$58 millions gone, an EIR/EIS not valid because they can't use the Union Pacific right of way. How much more can be wrong with this project.

Still the Democratic majority refuses to clean house and get a proper process started.

So don't be laying the blame on Ashburn or the Republicans; lay the blame where it belongs, on the backs of Rod Diridon, famous father of the light rail fiasco in Santa Clara county, Kopp and Morshed, who are nothing more than pawns for the political interests in San Francisco and San Jose."

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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net


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Received on Fri Jul 18 08:59:32 2008