In the past much has been written about California’s high-speed rail project, and not unlike doomsday climate change predictions, the “going to happen by…” date keeps getting pushed back while cash just keeps getting dumped down a seemingly bottomless money pit.
I’ll start with an update from the California High-Speed Rail Association:
‼️ Californians deserve the quick, efficient, and reliable travel alternative that much of the world already enjoys.
🚄 With top speeds of 220mph, high-speed rail will get you from SF to LA in under 3 hours, permanently transforming transportation in CA. #BuildHSR pic.twitter.com/h9qIK7CxX6
— CA High-Speed Rail 🚄💨 (@CaHSRA) December 28, 2022
That prompted a question about how long it’s taking:
Most of east Asia does this in <3 years, what took California this long?
— Allen Su (@AllenSu15828937) December 29, 2022
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Here’s the answer to that:
Despite the name, delivering a massive project like high-speed rail takes time, and as something that’s never been done in the United States, we’ve been first up when it comes to lessons learned.
— CA High-Speed Rail 🚄💨 (@CaHSRA) December 29, 2022
“Lessons learned”? Yeah, there certainly have been some. Fox News’ Bill Melugin shares one of those lessons that should have been learned by now (but obviously isn’t in many circles):
California’s bullet train was first approved by voters in 2008. It was supposed to be done by 2020 at a cost of $33 billion.
14 years later, work is underway on 170 miles of “starter” line in central CA, hoping to be done by 2030.
Total project cost now projected $113 billion. https://t.co/AdksHS108V— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 29, 2022
NYT write up on how much of a financial disaster this project has been.https://t.co/fZR2MihGxO
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 29, 2022
What happened? Big Government happened:
A review of hundreds of pages of documents, engineering reports, meeting transcripts and interviews with dozens of key political leaders show that the detour through the Mojave Desert was part of a string of decisions that, in hindsight, have seriously impeded the state’s ability to deliver on its promise to create a new way of transporting people in an era of climate change.
Political compromises, the records show, produced difficult and costly routes through the state’s farm belt. They routed the train across a geologically complex mountain pass in the Bay Area. And they dictated that construction would begin in the center of the state, in the agricultural heartland, not at either of the urban ends where tens of millions of potential riders live.
The pros and cons of these routing choices have been debated for years. Only now, though, is it becoming apparent how costly the political choices have been.
Those “costly political choices” were entirely predictable to anybody who wasn’t blinded by a need to move forward with this particular spend-a-palooza.
This project was approved 14 years ago, and it's still total vaporware. Exhibit A for how America can't build big things anymore. https://t.co/LLDEALLqDn
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) December 30, 2022
Perfectly encapsulates how the government works.
— Mark The Shark (@MRaff57) December 29, 2022
And what’s the government’s “solution” to all this waste and bureaucratic buffoonery? You guessed it — more government!
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Related:
WATCH: Joe Biden stumbles while talking about high-speed rail
