The California bullet train to nowhere keeps going nowhere and the Trump administration might finally pull the emergency break.
The California High Speed Rail project is no doubt one of the grandest boondoggles in American history. It was originally sold as an efficient, “green” method to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles. Since it was officially approved by voters in 2008, it’s been nothing but a drain on state and federal resources. More than that, the project is a total indictment on California’s monolithically Democrat leadership and governance over the past two decades.
“It is the worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen some of the worst,” President Donald Trump said in early February. He seems to be serious about investigating and possibly removing all federal funds from the project.
“For too long, taxpayers have subsidized the massively over-budget and delayed California High Speed Rail project,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy in late February. “President Trump is right that this project is in dire need of an investigation.”
Trump pulled $1 billion from California’s High Speed Rail in 2019 but the Biden administration sent $3.3 billion more in 2023.
The High-Speed Rail Authority is still counting on about $8 billion in grants from the federal government, but given Trump’s statements and commitments to cut costs, these grants seem unlikely to be fulfilled.
The only way this mindless, useless project potentially dies is if federal funding goes away. If not, well then at least it’s just California’s problem.
Waiting for something to finally happen and for the once Golden State to get its act together is like betting on the Washington Generals to finally beat the Harlem Globetrotters.
Consider that the transcontinental rail, which began construction during the Civil War, took only six years to complete. Its nearly 2,000 miles of track ran across the length of the country. It was a marvel and a testament to American industry and ingenuity. It bound together this great nation from sea to shining sea.
What exactly has all the money been spent on when the fruits of tens of billions of dollars of investment appear to be only a few miles of isolated tracks?
The Washington Free Beacon reviewed state audits of the California High-Speed Rail Authority and found that much of the money had been poured into vague, bizarre, and downright dubious endeavors.
The Free Beacon found that spending ranged “from $177,000 for PoliticoPro subscriptions to $5 million for graffiti removal. One company received more than $50,000 to head diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, while active environmental service contracts total $537 million.”
Of course, diversity, equity, and inclusion is highly important for the operation of this nonexistent train. From the Beacon:
In 2021, the authority inked a $10,850 contract with CPS HR Consulting to run meetings for the agency’s DEI task force, though it ultimately spent only $4,725. It signed another $46,000 contract with that firm in 2023 to provide a DEI training. The authority’s DEI page, which was removed sometime in the last five months, named diversity as ‘one of the six overarching goals that guide our holistic, integrated approach.’
The California High-Speed Rail project is a scam, brought to you by the California Democrat Party that’s held a monopoly on power in the state for a long, long time.
Funny enough, the California High-Speed Rail project has been so bad for so long that I can track my entire career with it. The very first op-ed I wrote for my school newspaper at the University of California, Davis predicted how much of a disaster and a waste of money it would be. That was in 2010. I’ve continued to write about it from time to time to recount how much money has been shoveled into the pit with no payoff. And yet, here we are. Nothing has changed.
I’d like to note that it isn’t impossible to build a high-speed rail line in the United States. A private company constructed one from Orlando to Miami in Florida. Yes, a private company, a business that needs to make money or it will go out of business.
The project cost just under $6 billion and was up and running in four years.
In some places, a high-speed rail may make sense. In California, where environmental laws make any large-scale infrastructure and building project impossible and where there are many other transportation options, it doesn’t.
I don’t want to hold my breath here, but perhaps now that the Trump administration seems serious about investigating California’s train to nowhere and may finally pull the plug on federal funding, we may see this thing put to rest at long last.
The New York Times suggested as much in a recent, surprisingly negative piece.
“The loss of so much federal money, if it were eventually held back, could fundamentally threaten a project that is already struggling with inadequate funding, potentially delaying the installation of electrical systems and the purchasing of trains—both essential big-ticket items,” the Times reported.
I really hope this is the final, fatal blow. I really hope that in another half decade—when I’ll likely be a lot grayer—I won’t again have to write about how the bureaucrats and union bosses “working” on the California High Speed Rail project got even fatter while needlessly feeding off taxpayer money until kingdom come.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
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