https://sfstandard.com/2023/10/27/san-francisco-downtown-rail-extension-portal-cost/
"The proposed rail tunnel is intended to connect Caltrain—and future high-speed trains—at the Fourth and King streets station to the massive new Salesforce Transit Center. Project costs have ballooned from $6.5 billion to a staggering $8.25 billion since October 2022, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission."
"The Downtown Rail Extension has been decades in the making, and its estimated cost has increased multiple times in recent years. In 2016, the cost of the rail extension was estimated at $3.9 billion."
https://www.sfcta.org/projects/salesforce-transit-center
https://www.sfcta.org/projects/downtown-rail-extension
More than doubled in just seven years? $1.7B in one year! WHY? HOW?
This is why you will not see high speed rail in the US in your lifetime. Any politician from another state who dared to champion it will be buried by an opposition that will point to California and its bottomless money pit.
BEAUSABREMore than doubled in just seven years? $1.7B in one year! WHY? HOW?
Have you not been to a store lately?
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
An extension to a downtown where fewer and fewer people want to go.
Kabow-19: Fewer going downtown? Probably, SF is an exception.
$8.25 billion dollars is a big number. Let's shrink it a bit:
It's about a mile from just before the tracks enter the current passenger station, over to the new transit center.
There are 63360 inches in a mile.
Thus, it is $130,000 an inch for this project--a much smaller number!
Oh, yes. And someone neglected to build the new transit center adjacent to BART. Unfortunately. It's almost as if San Francisco doesn't care to connect with the rest of the Bay Area.
Ed
Nut there is a Light Rail Station.
daveklepper Nut there is a Light Rail Station.
Indeed there is. That is the San Francisco Muni system, that only runs in the city. But there is no BART.
There is a direct connection to BART in San Jose, I believe.
But that would be like saying there will be a PATH connection in Bound Brook so commuters from Hoboken can get to 33rd Street. See here for situational awareness:
https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/images/news/BART%20Train%20Map%20FINAL%205%2010%2020.png
Meanwhile: actual BART through San Jose is now up to 12.2B, to be opened by 2036. Expect both those to 'slip' further...
One reason costs go up is (correct me if I am wrong) that the costs have to be calculated in year-of-expenditure dollars, not today's dollars.
Overmod, I agree completely. I made that point to ask: If theysee a value in the San Jose connection, how could they miss out in SF?
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