Commentary
In 2013, I called California’s high-speed rail (HSR) “the gift that keeps on taking.” Over a decade later, it remains the boondoggle that refuses to die—a zombified infrastructure dream that devours billions while going nowhere fast.
Back in 2008, voters passed Proposition 1A under the illusion they’d be boarding a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, with spurs to Sacramento and San Diego. Fast forward to 2025, and what do we have? Not the promised 800 miles of track. Not even the scaled-down 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield line. Instead, what’s under construction is a lonely 119-mile stretch from Madera to Shafter, not necessarily global transit hubs….