Once, it seemed everyone loved the California high-speed dream. The idea sounds so appealing: a sleek, ultra-fast train whisking travelers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in hassle-free comfort. Japan, France, China, and, heck, even Italy all have high-speed rail lines. Why not California, the world’s preeminent hub of tech innovation? Various California governors have been pushing the high-speed rail project forward since the early 1980s. Over the years, voters approved billions in funding and the federal government kicked in billions more.
Dream on, folks. Despite strong political support and massive infusions of cash, California’s rail project is barely limping along today. Instead of a 380-mile link between the state’s populous coastal cities, the current scheme merely aims to connect Bakersfield and Merced, two inland cities few care to visit, much less travel between, with 170 miles of absurdly expensive track. And that’s assuming the pitiful plan ever gets completed, which appears dubious. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) says voters constantly ask him, “’What the hell happened to the California of the ‘50s and ‘60s?’”
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Washington Examiner (paywall)
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a City Journal contributing editor, cohost of the How Do We Fix It? podcast, and the former editor of Popular Mechanics.
Photo by Andrew Holt/Getty Images
