California’s high speed rail to nowhere

California, one of the brokest states, is facing a $68 billion dollar budget deficit for 2024. As Senator Everette Dirksen said: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Chase away a hundred thousand taxpayers here, a hundred thousand there, pretty soon you have billion-dollar deficits. That’s why California’s high speed rail to nowhere is darkly hilarious.

Back in 2008, voters approved a mere $33 billion for a “high speed rail” (HSR) system, supposedly from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The project was always an obscene boondoggle and has become no less in 16 years. Traveling that route, which will almost certainly never be completed, was to take no less than three hours. Even in 2008, one could cheaply fly between those cities in less than half the time. HSR would be no cheaper, but take much longer. A reasonable person would ask why anyone would think high speed rail a good idea. It was never necessary. Because ego, paying off Democrat constituencies, lining Democrat pockets, and green of course.

Circa 2024, the LA to SF section is all but abandoned, there is no HSR service anywhere, and the unfinished and disconnected HSR infrastructure between Merced and Bakersfield resembles the wasted ruins of a long-dead society, mysteriously lost to time. Who needs or wants any train at any speed between those two places? But the best part is they’re asking for another $100 billion—that’s real money, even in California—to “complete” the LA to SF run: 

The California High-Speed Rail Authority will need an additional $100 billion — above the nearly $30 billion it already has — to complete its original route from San Francisco to Los Angeles, CEO Brian Kelly told state legislators this week. [skip]

Kelly testified in front of the State Senate’s Transportation Committee on the High-Speed Rail Authority’s updated draft business plan. In Tuesday’s hearing, Kelly told lawmakers the project has $28 billion dollars on hand, but noted it was still a few billion dollars short to complete the Central Valley segment between Merced and Bakersfield. Depending on how long the segment takes to finish, it could cost between $32 Billion to $35 Billion. Kelly said the project is hoping to fill the gap with federal funds. That segment of the project is expected to be fully operational between 2030 and 2033, Kelly said.

“Depending on how long the segment takes to finish.” That would be approximately never. The odds on the Merced to Bakersfield segment being finished between 2030 and 2033 are no better, and the probability anyone would want to ride a train between those two points is nil.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) originally canceled the northern and southern portions of the high-speed rail plan in 2019, saying they would “cost too much” and “take too long.” But he insisted on building the Central Valley portion of the rail.

Graphic: HSR Garces Highway Viaduct. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.  

Why would he do that? Ego, and it wouldn’t do to have all those unfinished concrete and rebar monoliths littering the landscape for future archeologists to puzzle over. Worse, failing to do something would expose the idiocy of the project from the beginning, and it would cost too much to remove all that unfinished concrete and rebar.

President Donald Trump famously tried clawing back the funding that California had spent on the project. President Joe Biden restored interest in high-speed rail, including a privately-run line from Southern California to Las Vegas.

Biden has also restored interest in making America dependent on our enemies for oil, computer chips, and a variety of other necessities of modern life. He has also refocused Americans on mathematics as they struggle to squeeze every penny out of their bank accounts.

High speed rail is a prime example of California’s obsession with throwing good money after bad. In this case, there was no good money from the start, and even if a very short section of track is ever completed and a train ever runs, it will never be anything but a continuing drag on the treasury of a state losing taxpayers hand over foot, and unable to keep the lights on.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.