There are lessons to be drawn from California’s transportation failures. Every project needs a clear and accountable champion. Successful projects require dedicated staffs with technical expertise and real power; too many projects rely on too many expensive and unaccountable outside consultants. Transportation plans need realistic budgets, more financial commitment from taxpayers, greater urgency. The DTX has none of these things. Neither does high-speed rail. If the bullet train ends up dead, Newsom can console himself with this: It won’t be as bad a failure as the DTX. The latest estimates for that 1.3-mile project have ballooned to $6.1 billion. High-speed rail may be an $80 billion project, but if it were as expensive per-mile as the DTX, connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would cost over $2 trillion.
At www.laprogressive.com
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