California’s High-Speed Rail Deserves to Be Canceled
The concept of a fast train between Los Angeles and San Francisco makes sense, but the project has always lacked focus.
Will they ever finish?
Photographer: David Paul Morris//Bloomberg
If President Donald Trump follows through on his recent threats to cut off federal funding for California’s long-troubled high-speed rail project, it would be better for all concerned: For all intents and purposes, this thing went off the rails (sorry) a long time ago.
Escalating costs have made it clear that no money was or ever would be available to realize the vision of a modern bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco. What’s under construction is a segment through California’s Central Valley, where costs are cheap compared to other parts of the system but which offers almost no economic value. The whole thing has become a zombie project that nobody with clout in state politics can either rescue or kill. A hated outsider officially ending it would let the state’s Democrats complain while also allowing them to acknowledge the reality that it’s not going to happen.