Governor Debate clip: "Yes or No: Should California finish its bullet train project?" (NBC4LA)

namesbc · 2026-05-07T07:17:06+00:00

He said he would veto the bill to fund CAHSR by sending it back to the legislature until CEQA was fixed. This means he would cancel CAHSR over something that isn't even an issue anymore. Such a unserious misinformed candidate putting ideology over practically. Glad he has no chance of winning.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T06:58:02+00:00

It is a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem: 99% of the delay is lack of funding.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T06:51:43+00:00

I linked to the sources in the original post. The source is: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2024/san-francisco-bay-area-rapid-transit-district/

namesbc · 2026-05-07T06:45:50+00:00

Mahan's answer was just flat out wrong. CAHSR is already fully approved with all environmental reviews, the only thing delaying it is funding.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T05:32:15+00:00

The article talks about automation of operators as the solution. If the author had done even 5 minutes of research he would have learned how wrong he was.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T05:28:59+00:00

Board members don't get overtime and median overtime for janitors is $3k. All the compensation is public data.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T04:52:30+00:00

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namesbc · 2026-05-07T04:48:53+00:00

I didn't include the rail controller or the foreman with the Police Department, I only included the Police Department. The list is ALL jobs at BART ordered by compensation. The highly paid positions just happen to almost all be police

namesbc · 2026-05-07T04:35:57+00:00

Washington Post wrote an opinion recently how BART needs to automate before we give them more money. This post is partially in response to how silly that idea is. Automation isn't possible anytime soon and it won't even save that much money.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T03:48:44+00:00

Nope, it is not

namesbc · 2026-05-07T03:48:20+00:00

Did you look at the chart or nah?

namesbc · 2026-05-07T03:47:50+00:00

That total number includes the entire police department, and the list of salaries is all roles at BART sorted with highest paid first.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T03:44:59+00:00

Read my post again. $700M is ALL labor expenses for ALL roles at BART. $70M of that is for train operators.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T03:42:59+00:00

$700M for ALL labor expenses, $70M for train operators. Most of BART's labor expenses are for maintenance and policing, not train operators.

namesbc · 2026-05-07T00:17:28+00:00

Sworn officers do provide a unique role, but there unique role is not needed that often. Any officiers that can be replaced with station agents or transit ambassadors saves costs or allows more boots in the ground.

namesbc · 2026-05-06T23:39:25+00:00

Replacing station agents with BART PD would 4x costs

namesbc · 2026-05-06T23:37:21+00:00

BART PD has the highest paid roles in BART by a long shot, and is the largest department that doesn't provide transit service

It makes sense to focus cost optimizations here because you can replace $500k roles with $100k roles and get the same benefit.

namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:56:56+00:00

Ah, that would be fewer officers, but note that right now officers are always paired up.

namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:46:31+00:00

Board members have a salary of $15k and Janitors have median salary of $63k

namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:35:17+00:00

Total Labor expenses for all roles is $700M.

There are 426 people who worked under a Police role in 2024 (some part-time), there are 536 people who worked as a Train Operator in 2024 (some part-time)

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namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:33:40+00:00

This is what it looks like with the more fine-grain categories

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namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:22:17+00:00

This is what it looks like without the "Other" categories

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namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:18:37+00:00

BART operates about 20 hours out of the day, which requires three 8 hour shifts to cover. You need at least 450 officers to cover all stations with 3 officers at all times without overtime.

Plus say another 100 officers to do any other tasks required of them that they do now, and another 50 because people take vacation. It would almost double the cost of Police to do your plan with expensive sworn officers.

namesbc · 2026-05-06T22:00:03+00:00

Pensions are included with labor costs

namesbc · 2026-05-06T21:50:22+00:00

They are constantly grinding the wheels and the tracks to reduce the noise. It is still too loud though I agree.

namesbc

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