What is it with transportation budgeting that no one can accurately predict the cost and funding of ANYTHING within, oh, say a BILLION DOLLARS?

The problem is not limited to NYC and MTA – now Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell has her own commuter rail budgeting fiasco on her hands.

The new Metro-North Connecticut Train Yard (remember unlike Hudson and Harlem Lines, Connecticut DOT owns the New Haven line cars), which was projected to come in at around $300 Million, has somehow skyrocketed to about $1.17 BILLION dollars.

The legislature has until May 7 to figure out how on earth its going to pay for this thing, which hasn’t even been bid on yet, and breaks ground in the spring. It needs to be online by late 2009 in order to accommodate the new fleet of M-8 cars scheduled to start deployment on the New Haven Line at that time.

Some are worried that this mess may someone affect the deployment date of the new cars.

How did this happen? Well, Governor Rell isn’t sure, so she is having an objective audit performed and delivered to her by June.