INGA BARKS: High-speed rail a 'Simpsons'-like scam
| Friday, Dec 03 2010 12:16 PM
Last Updated Friday, Dec 03 2010 12:16 PM
Former Gov. Gray Davis once dismissed California high-speed rail as something out of "Buck Rogers," but I prefer to liken it to a season four episode of "The Simpsons" in which a music man-like shyster complete with straw hat, bow tie and suspenders sings and dances his way into the city coffers by convincing the good people of Springfield that what they really need to invest in is a train system that is quiet, fast and will create jobs.
Sound familiar? Now, I'm not suggesting that the people of California are as dim-witted as the townsfolk in a cartoon. After all, these guys were also talked into buying a building made of Jell-O and an escalator that goes to nowhere and we couldn't be tricked into those things -- I hope.
But if we were to compare California high-speed rail to the 1993 Simpsons episode, the voters would definitely be the people of Springfield and the shyster would be, well, take your pick!
The governor and other proponents of the nearly $10 billion bond measure to build high-speed rail could play the role. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and other pandering officials also qualify. And snickering in the corner, wearing a bow tie and straw hat, is the High-Speed Rail Authority.
I'm convinced that when voters approved Proposition 1A (high-speed rail bond), they thought that the project was going to cost just less than $10 billion and that the creation of a high-speed rail authority was the result of passing the bond measure. Because if they knew that the actual cost was going to be as high as $42 billion, that private investors and federal funds weren't a guarantee, and that the High-Speed Rail Authority has been around since the last century with no train project to speak of, I know they'd have voted differently.
By 2007 the HSRA had already been paid $70 million, according to a report from the California Legislative Analyst's Office. That same report recommended that the authority be dissolved because while it had spent $70 million on studies by environmentalists and engineers, there was no train!
By the time the bond measure made it to the ballot, even some of its authors and former supporters such as state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, were warning that the High-Speed Rail Authority had absolutely no plan for building the rail. And it didn't have a plan. Until Thursday.
With a deadline to spend federal funds (and a threat from Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, to cancel those funds), the High-Speed Rail Authority unanimously determined the location of the first stretch of the rail system. After all of these years of spending your money on studies, traveling around the world to see other train systems, scaring Bakersfield High School alumni with a plan that goes through their campus, it was announced Thursday that the first tracks will be laid between Borden and Corcoran!
Now before you go racing out the door to buy your ticket to Borden, calm down! Because according to the Los Angeles Times, this $4.15 billion dollar stretch of track will have no trains or maintenance facilities, nor will it have the electrical system necessary to power high-speed trains! That's right! You just bought 65 miles of train track on a stretch you'll probably never travel (no offense Corcoran) that has no train, for just more than $4 billion!
What a steal (steal being the operative word).
Ashburn and McCarthy are right and this Borden to Corcoran boondoggle needs to be derailed before one shovel hits the dirt. The High-Speed Rail Authority knows it has a mess on its hands, it knows people are starting to ask questions and demand answers, but it also knows that once that 65-mile stretch is built, we're committed.
If the private investors and federal funds never materialize, we're committed to, at a minimum, $30 billion more than we voted to spend. Once that first leg is built, we become a laughing stock for having a rail that goes to nowhere, or a laughing stock for building a 500-mile train system that will have to be subsidized to stay afloat.
Ya know, we could have gone with the Jell-O tower. It might have been overpriced, but a lot easier to swallow.
Inga Barks, who hosts a talk show on KMJ AM 580, is one of four community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday. These are the opinions of Barks, not necessarily The Californian. You can e-mail her at ibarks@bakersfield.com. Next week: Ric Llewellyn.
