Don’t throw good money after bad
The Transcontinental Railroad covered 1,912 miles, from Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco. The route surveys were done from 1853 to 1855, the work on the line was started in 1863 and finished in 1869. The price for the line was $2.666 billion in 2017 dollars.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority is working on a line covering 118 miles from Shafter to Merced. This was projected to be finished this year, but the federal risk assessment is projecting a completion date of 2024. The budget for this 118 miles, was $6.4 billion. The California High-Speed Rail Authority is now coming to us and saying that it needs $3.6 billion more for completion.
It is time to kill this project because of the other 402 miles not yet paid for; throwing good money after bad is never a good idea.
John Renfro, Fresno
This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Don’t throw good money after bad."