Hey, a hundred billion here, a hundred billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. But apparently not real progress.
When I first started writing about California’s high-speed rail boondoggle thirteen years ago, its advocates claimed they could connect Los Angeles and San Francisco for $33 billion. After getting $3.5 billion from the Obama administration, the number grew to $42 billion, and even then critics put closer to nine figures. Despite calling the project a “train wreck,” the LA Times editorial board endorsed the project and a new state board that was supposed to exercise fiscal discipline and enforce construction deadlines.
By November 2011, the California High-Speed Rail Authority admitted that the projected cost had ballooned to $98 billion. The state and the federal government insisted on pursuing the train nonetheless and claimed it would provide…
