Back to the High Speed Rail subject….
We are now discovering the false promises under which HSR was foisted upon us. Much has been made of the propaganda fed to the voters before they (barely) approved the bond measure to start HSR some three years ago: understating the costs of building it, overstating expected ridership, understating ticket prices, to name just three.
The lies continue. Recently a consulting company was hired by the HSR authority to predict ridership (and thus revenues) once the whole project is complete. Naturally, they had to come up with a number that would justify the project financially.
They projected an annual ridership for CA that was three times what Amtrak currently gets in the entire U.S.–in 46 states!
They came up with this number by asking the public whether they would ride HSR. 90% of those asked said they would take the HSR. Who did they ask? Current users of trains in CA. Such a subset of CA citizenry is 5% of the population.
This is our government at work. This is our tax money funding such a shoddy study to convince us to spend more. This is also our CA media failing to blow the whistle on such dishonesty.
BTW, this info all from whistle-blower and libertarian commentator Chris Reed of the Union-Tribune, who does a great radio show on KOGO, 600 am, 6:00 to 8:00 pm daily except Wednesdays. I highly recommend him.
