Last week, federal transportation officials announced an investigation into federal funding of California’s high-speed rail boondoggle. It’s about time.
“I am directing my staff to review and determine whether the (California High-Speed Rail Authority) has followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding. If not, I will have to consider whether that money could be given to deserving infrastructure projects elsewhere in the United States,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a news conference on Thursday.
Anyone following how the California high-speed rail project has proceeded over the years should know that the project has been nothing short of a money pit.
Back when California voters got to weigh in on the project with their vote on Proposition 1A in 2008, they did so under the impression that they’d have a high-speed rail line running by now linking Los Angeles and San Francisco by now. And just at the cost of somewhere from $30 billion to $45 billion.
At the time, opponents of the project warned, “The project has already wasted $58 million on consultants, studies, European travel, and glossy brochures. Prop. 1 allows the bureaucrats and politicians to spend billions more without ever laying one inch of track. California taxpayers would be on the hook for that money even if the project were shut down. The special interests backing Proposition 1 are notorious for their cost overruns. They stand to make billions off this scam.”
If only Californians knew how right the opponents were.
Today, Californians have no high-speed rail to ride. Certainly not from Los Angeles to San Francisco. In a decade from now they might have the privilege to take the high-speed rail line from Merced to Fresno. And the cost to build that will exceed the original estimated cost of the entire project.
While the California High-Speed Rail Authority likes to remind people of all the jobs the project has created, that’s not the point of the project. If the project was instead named the California High-Speed Rail Jobs project, governed by the California High-Speed Rail Jobs Authority, the number of jobs created might be relevant. But it isn’t.
We don’t have a high-speed rail line.
We have consistently seen the project delayed and the subject of lawsuits.
We have consistently seen the project the subject of scathing audits.
We have consistently seen the estimated costs of the project grow even higher.
At some point, someone needs to be the adult in the room and throw in the towel on the project. Throwing good money after bad makes no sense, especially since there’s no shortage of needs in California. From wildfire prevention to the homelessness crisis.
The federal government should not waste a single dollar more in support of the California high-speed rail boondoggle.
Cutting off any remaining federal support might be what’s needed to force California’s hand in shuttering the project.