California Bullet Train -- Update -- January 12, 2025

Locator: 44669CALI.

To put the Pacific Palisades financial loss in perspective: right now, the losses due to the fires may be about what the cost of the Bullet Train is currently said to be. 

Link here.

This past week, just hours before the fires began in southern California and mayor Bass was (soon?) on her way to Ghana, Africa, Governor Newsom was breaking ground on a new railyard for the Bullet Train. As Taylor Swift would say, "a lot going on at the moment." 

Near Shafter, CA:

Construction of a new railyard between Wasco and Shafter in Kern County will set the stage for the eventual construction of tracks and other operating systems for California’s planned high-speed rail project.

The site, called a railhead, is near the southernmost end of a 22-mile stretch of the future bullet-train route from the Tulare-Kern county line to Poplar Avenue near Shafter, northwest of Bakersfield. 

This got a lot of press, but in fact, it's nothing more than a staging area for material. Governor Newsom suggested that rail would start to be laid in a "couple of years." 

To put this all in perspective, the losses from the southern California fire were estimated to be in the $20-billion range in the first couple of days, but now estimates are as high as $150 billion.

The Bullet Train is apparently still a $100-billion short, according to other sources. 

So, as I see it, if California has enough money to pay for a bullet train way over budget, the state will have more than enough to cover the southern California fires.

“This damn thing is substantially permanent,” Newsom said of the overall Valley portion of construction from north of Madera to Shafter, the first stages of what is planned as an initial operating segment for the trains between Merced and Bakersfield.

“Finally, we’re at the point where we’re going to start laying down this track in the next couple years.”

On another note, the governor can say any budgetary deficits the state incurs over the next few years can be blamed on the fires. 

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