Another Example Of How Cost/Benefit Analysis Can Be Used To Hide Corruption.

If you have been reading this rant, you know just how absurd the passenger estimates are for the California Bullet Train To Nowhere.

Here is today's Los Angeles Time's summary of all the ridership estimates that have been used to justify the enormous expense of this white elephant in the recent past.  Whatever you need to justify this awful boondoggle is somewhere in those ridership estimates.  They are all complete crap and represent absolute corruption, but my favorite is the one for 2040.  Go back and check the numbers in an earlier rant based solely on the facts put forth by the backers of this awful idea.

 
"Over the years, the bullet train's passenger estimates have fluctuated from a high of more than 100 million passengers annually for an 800-mile system between San Diego and Sacramento to about 30 million for a 500-mile network linking Anaheim and San Francisco.
In a series of agency reports over the years, Cambridge's ridership estimates have dropped sharply. The 2008 plan estimated an initial 500-mile system would carry 55 million passengers annually by 2030. In 2009, the number was adjusted to 41 million by 2035. In November, a draft plan put the number in a range as low as 29.6 million by 2040. And the business plan issued last week dropped the middle of the range to 26.4 million and said it could go as low as 20.1 million in 2040."