High-Speed Snail

The last few days have not been good ones for California’s high speed rail project.

In fact, very very few days in its entire existence have been good ones for the odious debacle.

Come to think of it, there has probably only been one, ever – the day it was approved by voters and while that was good for the project it was terrible for the state.

Thursday, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced a federal audit of the project and its finances. And Friday, the project’s own inspector general (IG) released a report that can only be called, um, less than complimentary.

The IG’s report noted that there have been massive problems with land acquisition and figuring out what to do with existing utilities and water canals and such. In fact, it turns out the project has been designing and building things that – once those issues are finally settled – will almost certainly have to be ripped up and replaced.

The report also noted other gaps in the system, such as this 400 foot space that has no approved plan to be fixed despite years of “work”:

One supposes the passengers could get out and walk around it, but that would defeat the purpose of it being “high speed” rail.

Note also that the high speed track is just yards from the existing freight/Amtrak rail line, lending an even greater level of superfluity to the entire project.

And just to make sure everyone knew this was a California project, the IG recommended hiring more lawyers and having the legislature pass a law forcing land and utility owners to come to terms more quickly.

As to the feds, a $4 billion dollar payout to the system planned under the Biden administration was supposed to take place soon – Duffy said that will not happen until they can figure out where the money has actually been going (the feds already have a billion or so sunk into the project.)

Read the rest of this piece at The Point.

Thomas Buckley is the former Mayor of Lake Elsinore and a former newspaper reporter. He is currently the operator of a small communications and planning consultancy and can be reached directly at planbuckley@gmail.com. You can read more of his work at thomas699.substack.com.

Photo: courtesy The Point.