Letters to the Editor: It might be time for California to move on from ‘hideously expensive’ high-speed rail

Letters to the Editor: It might be time for California to move on from ‘hideously expensive’ high-speed rail

'It is time to mothball what has been built so far, spend on more urgent issues and perhaps resurrect the train at some future point,' writes an L.A. Times reader.

Going Nowhere Fast: California’s Costly High-Speed Rail Project

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 …

California’s High Speed Rail Is Reaching the End Of the Line

In 2008, California progressives convinced a bare majority of voters to start an 800-mile high-speed rail service that would connect San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento. It was to be finished in 2020. Now, 17 years later, the project looks more like a con artist’s dream than transportation. Construction is inching along on a third of the route, a mere stub between Merced (population 93,000) and Bakersfield (population 413,000).…

Both states have embraced high-speed rail as a modern transportation solution, but only one has moved from planning to implementation.