The Train to Nowhere Remains a Boondoggle

California’s high speed rail, aka The Train to Nowhere, remains likely to never carry passengers between Northern California and Southern California. Perhaps the segment linking Merced and Shafter (just north of Bakersfield) will run (although unlikely at high speed); more likely, it will never run. So the image that comes into my mind is the following:

via GIPHY

There have been some developments since I last reported on the train. First, the California Supreme Court ruled at the end of July that California law was not preempted by federal law and that a number of environmental suits against the high speed rail authority could continue.

Meanwhile, Quentin Kopp, the man who introduced the rail line, now calls the line foolish. In an interview with reason.com he said,

It is foolish, and it is almost a crime to sell bonds and encumber the taxpayers of California at a time when this is no longer high-speed rail. And the litigation, which is pending, will result, I am confident, in the termination of the High-Speed Rail Authority’s deceiving plan…

[The selling of bonds is] deceit. That’s not a milestone, it’s desperation, because High-Speed Rail Authority is out of money.

Ouch. Baruch Feuigenbaum, assistant director of transportation policy for the Reason Foundation, stated, “The costs of building [high-speed rail] projects usually vastly outweigh the benefits…Rail is more of a nineteenth century technology [and] we don’t have to go through these headaches and cost overruns to build a future transportation system.”

Look on the bright side Californians, the project will likely need subsidies from the state of only $100 million a year. That’s not bad, right?

Or better, I’m sure the 10 Shafterites looking to head to Merced each day will love the train (as will the 20 residents of Merced looking to head to Shafter each day).

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