Just a shame that Biden and Harris never did anything for the working class. They say.
I'm not going to pretend that I know the whole picture as to why this project is so severely over budget and behind schedule (there is likely nobody on Earth who does), but let me give some pointers as to why countries like China have built hundreds of thousands of kilometres of high-speed rail while California struggles to build a few hundred.
For one, the legal environment in China is one of the prerogative state. "Rights" in China are whatever the Government suffers you to have or deems it expedient to honour. So if you "own" a piece of land in the middle of the planned rail route, the Government will just kick you out. What are you going to do, sue? In the US, environmental laws, land rights laws, and legal procedural law mean that anyone who can spend $50,000 on a lawyer can cause $1 million worth of headaches for the high speed rail authority using the American legal system, which believe it or not, actually sometimes holds the State accountable to the law.
Secondly, in China, the Government has an unprecedented control over the economy that allows it to offer carrots and sticks to a degree that American politicians could only dream of. Yes, you have no say on whether the Government will order your house demolished to make way for an expressway, but in return, if you go quietly, you'll get a flat in a high-rise in exchange and generous monetary compensation. Raise a stink, and you'll be paid three strawberries and a steamed bun for your house instead.
Thirdly, under Chinese property law, all land in the country belongs to the State. Everyone else can only lease it from the State.
if you “own” a piece of land in the middle of the planned rail route, the Government will just kick you out.
That's how the interstate system and urban highways were built. But people being displaced were mostly black and/or poor and/or immigrants, so it wasn't seen as a bad thing at the time.
In the United States, the Constitution states that in order to take your land for this purpose, you must be compensated fairly. Of course, "fairly" in terms of market value did not amount to very much, but compensation was paid and even dilapidated housing in so-called "blighted" neighbourhoods were still worth something and the cost does add up when you're knocking hundreds of houses down and having to pay thousands for each one.
It had to be something. High speed rail has been "planned" in California for like 30 years. Some companies have taken monies to build it. It still doesn't exist.
China will have built, like, 20 more of these rail systems by the time the US government is done scrapping this one project.
fuuuuuu
we have been building this thing for like 15 years. just let us have something nice.
Does someone in the room with Trump understand that California provides more federal taxes than they receive? A high-speed rail line would almost certainly pay for itself ten times over.
Withhold the taxes and use it directly on the project. Why give the federal government the money so they can decide when to hand it back to you, or if they cancel it entirely
There is no easy way to withhold the taxes because the State of California never touches the money. Most of the federal tax revenue from California is remitted directly to the Internal Revenue Service by individual taxpayers.
Let's just admit the answer to the question "does he associate with people who can do math?" is a resounding "no."
Doesn’t matter unfortunately, oil companies have the most influence with the people in the room and oil companies make more money on cars. If they make functional public transport, it means less people will use cars as their regular mode of transportation.
