National Review: It’s time we kiss off CA’s HSR project

Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow Dominic Pino summarizes the failures of California’s ever-delayed high-speed rail rip-off. From the very beginning, Pino posits, the HSR project has prioritized political quid pro quo over taxpayers and residents’ best interests — and fourteen years later, it’s debatable whether it will ever reach completion.

The complete failure of the project should have been obvious to anyone. Originally projected to cost $33 billion when it was approved in 2008, it is now estimated to cost $113 billion and may never be completed. The goal was to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles by rail in under two hours and 40 minutes, but the only segment currently under construction is in the Central Valley, nowhere near either city.

Ralph Vartabedian wrote the [New York Times] piece, which you should read in full. As conservatives frequently warn about government planning, political considerations have outweighed financial or engineering considerations throughout the project. Here’s one example from the piece:

The most direct route would have taken the train straight north out of Los Angeles along the Interstate 5 corridor through the Tejon Pass, a route known as “the Grapevine.” Engineers had determined in a “final report” in 1999 that it was the preferred option for the corridor.

But political concerns were lurking in the background. Mike Antonovich, a powerful member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was among those who argued that the train could get more riders if it diverted through the growing desert communities of Lancaster and Palmdale in his district, north of Los Angeles.

The extra 41 miles to go through Palmdale would increase costs by 16 percent, according to the 1999 report, a difference in today’s costs of as much as $8 billion.

According to interviews with those working on the project at the time, the decision was a result of political horse-trading in which Mr. Antonovich delivered a multi-billion-dollar plum to his constituents.

This article originally appeared in the National Review. Read the whole thing here.

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