Readers React: The bullet train that voters were promised isn’t getting built. Halt the project now

To the editor: Why isn’t the California High Speed Rail Authority in court for blatantly defying the express will of the voters?

In 2008, the voters approved a ballot measure authorizing the expenditure of about $10 billion toward the total $33-billion cost of the initial segment connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco in a specified travel time. Now the authority wishfully thinks it can build a slower train connecting part of the Bay Area to Southern California for three times what voters were originally told it would take.

The train will not go where promised; it will go slower than promised; it won’t be ready for 13 years after its originally promised completion date; and its cost projection is triple the original estimate.

There is a business principle of “sunk costs” that’s similar to the old saying that when you discover you’re digging your hole deeper, stop digging. Cancel this project and stop pouring millions of dollars per day down the bottomless pit.

Richard Morse, Redondo Beach

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To the editor: I found the article on the amount of spending on the bullet train depressing. It shouldn’t be depressing that we in California are willing to take the nation’s great leap forward and finally catch up to other nations that have high-speed rail.

Obviously, it is a huge and difficult endeavor with lots of issues. I believe that the Los Angeles Times’ reporting should be a bit more positive or at least neutral, coaching the project to success rather than Monday-morning quarterbacking about the difficulties.

Dennis Eriksen, West Hills

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