San Diego was promised a bullet train to Los Angeles. Gavin Newsom once promised to deliver it. Neither promise has been kept — and if you live here, you have been paying for the failure for nearly two decades.
The California High-Speed Rail project, approved by voters in 2008 with a promise to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours for $33 billion by 2020, is now one of the most expensive infrastructure failures in American history. After 18 years of planning and more than $15 billion in spending, not a single mile of high-speed track is in operation.
The current cost estimate stands at $126 billion — nearly four times what voters were told. The initial operating segment, connecting Merced to Bakersfield along a route few San Diegans will ever use, won’t open until at least 2032. The full corridor is projected for 2038 to 2039 — if funding ever materializes. There is a $90 billion gap between what the state has and what it needs…