California Dems Request Funds For Rail Project

By
Rachel Stevenson
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Ah, California’s high-speed rail project. The gift that keeps on taking. It’s like that overhyped tech gadget you ordered in 2008 that still hasn’t arrived, except this one has already cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. And now, in a truly breathtaking display of chutzpah, California Democrats are begging outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for over half a billion dollars to keep this derailed disaster sputtering along.

Let’s rewind. Back in 2019, then-President Donald Trump had the audacity to demand some fiscal accountability. After Governor Gavin Newsom admitted that the original plan for a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco “bullet train” was a pipe dream—too expensive and far too slow—Trump cut off $1 billion in federal funding and told California to give back the taxpayer money they’d already burned through. Newsom resisted because why not? California apparently thinks “accountability” is a four-letter word.

Fast forward to the Biden administration, where the money taps were turned back on. Not only did Biden restore the funding Trump withheld, but he also sweetened the pot by adding funds for a separate, privately backed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line—a project that at least has some commercial viability. But the California boondoggle? It’s now reduced to plans for a partial line between Bakersfield and Palmdale, with a little jaunt from Gilroy to Chowchilla. For those unfamiliar, these are not exactly global tourist destinations. Call it a high-speed rail to nowhere.

Yet here we are. As Biden packs up his administration, California’s Democrats are scrambling to squeeze out another $536 million to fund design work for tunnels through the Tehachapi Mountains and Pacheco Pass. Design work—not even construction. That’s right, taxpayers, we’re still paying for the blueprints. At this rate, the tunnels might be finished sometime around 2080—just in time for robots to complain about delays.

Let’s talk numbers. When voters approved this project in 2008, the whole thing was supposed to cost $33 billion and be done by 2020. Fast forward 16 years, and the price tag has ballooned to somewhere between $89 billion and $128 billion, with no completion in sight. Even the most optimistic projections don’t have a single segment operational until 2030. The whole mess is like watching a slow-motion train wreck, except the train hasn’t even left the station.

And it’s not just rail projects where California Democrats are dreaming big and delivering small. Last week, the Biden administration greenlit Newsom’s plan to ban gas-powered cars by 2035. This, despite the fact that EV sales aren’t even close to meeting the state’s ambitious targets. It’s almost as if no one stopped to think about how this would actually work—like where all the electricity is going to come from, especially when the state can’t keep the lights on in the summer.

President-elect Trump, who’s no fan of overpromised, underdelivered government projects, is likely to slam the brakes on these pipe dreams as soon as he takes office. His pick for Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, hails from the Midwest—a region known for practical infrastructure planning, not grandiose fantasies. If there’s one thing America’s transportation policy needs, it’s a little Midwestern common sense.

So, here’s hoping the Trump administration can put the brakes on California’s perpetual money pit. Because let’s face it: $536 million would be better spent on almost anything else—fixing potholes, repairing bridges, or, heck, even a national fund for people stuck in TSA lines. Anything but another bailout for a train that still hasn’t left the station.

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