OPINION:
The Golden State’s utopian visionaries conned residents into blowing $15 billion to build a locomotive zipping from Los Angeles to San Francisco at 220 miles per hour. After 16 years, no meaningful progress has been made.
Fulfilling this dream was supposed to cost “only” $33 billion. By 2020, thousands of Angelenos would board the bullet train to Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch. That didn’t happen. Projected expenses ballooned to $128 billion, and the initial segment’s completion date stretched to 2033. It’s now a planned train between Bakersfield and Fresno.
Congress wants to know whether American taxpayers are being swindled. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer opened an investigation last week to determine whether the California High-Speed Rail Authority “knowingly misrepresented the ridership projections and the associated financial viability of the California High-Speed Rail Project (CHSR Project) to secure federal and state funds.”
Mr. Comer asked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to send the committee everything relevant in the department’s files. The Kentucky Republican is especially interested in President Biden’s last-minute allocation of $4 billion in federal funds to pump up the scheme.
Fortunately, President Trump’s team clawed back that money before it could be spent, and the Federal Railroad Administration severed the remaining federal subsidies last month. “We could give every single resident of L.A. and San Francisco almost 200 free flights” for what the high-speed rail project cost, Mr. Duffy said.
California’s choo-choo endeavor flopped because the state’s Democratic supermajority was stymied by its own red tape. The California High-Speed Rail Authority insisted on creating “the largest clean energy transportation project in the nation” and investing millions of dollars to “recruit more women into construction careers,” reflecting greater interest in social engineering than actual engineering.
The muddled thinking reflects the populace. A new Citrin Center-Possibility Lab-Politico poll found that 62% of registered California voters still backed the proposal, even though just 23% thought it would be built as promised.
It’s more about image than reality. As San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom explained at the 2010 groundbreaking ceremony: “I am sick and tired of hearing about how wonderful the transportation system is in France and Japan, or ‘Have you been to Shanghai? Do you know what they’re doing in Beijing?’ Well, finally, California is going to get it right with this new high-speed rail, and the northern terminus will happen right here.”
Clear-eyed analysts failed to convince with dire warnings that a system that works in Europe’s dense urban environment wouldn’t be effective in a sprawling countryside better served by the air. Round-trip, 90-minute flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco can be had for as low as $77. Even accounting for the annoyance of dealing with the Transportation Security Administration’s security pantomime, jets are hard to beat.
Now, as governor, Mr. Newsom is suing Uncle Sam to preserve his fantasy. He hopes a federal judge will force Mr. Trump to give him more loot so he can play with the world’s most overpriced and incomplete train set. Ever the political chameleon, Mr. Newsom, in his 2019 State of the State address, touted his competence in solving the rail boondoggle.
“We’re going to hold contractors and consultants accountable to explain how taxpayer dollars are spent, including change orders, cost overruns, even travel expenses,” he said.
His inquiry turned up nothing. Perhaps Mr. Comer’s independent probe will bring accountability to the multibillion-dollar mischief.
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