High-Speed Rail
Blog
Cost of California’s High-Speed Rail Goes Up Again
It was also supposed to be carrying 65.5 million to 96.5 million intercity riders a year by 2030. Yet now 2040 is the date for “full service to start.” Skeptics don’t believe we’ll ever see the train run with paying customers aboard. “In my judgment, the Draft 2026 Business Plan describes a project that has reached a ...
Blog
Despite setbacks, inter-city bullet train boondoggles keep chugging along
The high-speed rail (HSR) community had a tough 2025. In April, the Trump administration nixed a $63.9 million grant to “the Amtrak Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor previously known as the Texas Central Railway project.” Justifying the decision, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy explained that if “the private sector believes ...
Blog
Lawsuit’s End Latest Sign of High Speed Rail’s Woes
An HSRA official said the decision to pull the lawsuit was made because “the federal government is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high-speed rail in California.” In reality, it’s a tacit admission from the HSRA that it doesn’t deserve the money. At this point, it’s become rather tedious to recite the high-speed rail’s ...
Blog
Plan to Tear Up Local Streets Latest Controversy for California’s Train to Nowhere
The Fresno Bee reports that streets in the center of city would have to be rebuilt as a series of overpasses and underpasses to avoid the road-level tracks for high-speed rail. The city was under the impression, based on a 2018 agreement, that the streets would remain as is while the train ...
Blog
The Train To Nowhere Goes Somewhere – Maybe
The promise of a bullet train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, and maybe even extending to San Diego to the south and Sacramento to the north, was broken longer before ground was broken in 2015 for the project. The route has been shortened, the construction timeline endlessly extended, and ...
Blog
Never Gonna Give You Up: Will High-Speed Rail Ever Be Scrapped?
Critics say the troubled project should be abandoned. They correctly point out that incurring sunk costs is a better outcome than continuing to spend tens of billions on a dream that is unlikely to be completed, and if it is, won’t be anything like the modern system promised to voters ...
Blog
California cities may now dodge bullet train destruction
In his May budget revision for fiscal year 2025-26, which began on July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom earmarked $1 billion a year for the next 20 years from the state’s cap-and-trade system toward the rail project. Like the wounded Black Knight in the “Tis but a scratch scene” in “Monty ...
Blog
Latest report shows California bullet train is really a train to nowhere
Will There Ever Be Any Good News About The High-Speed Rail?
Last month’s spike-driving ceremony was a feel-good story about the California bullet train. It was, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a “big damn deal” that indicated “progress” was being made on a project that is embarrassingly behind schedule and almost inconceivably over cost. It was an event for public consumption that ...
Blog
Will Trump finally put nail in coffin of CA's high speed rail boondoggle?
Can California Find Other Uses For Bullet Train Infrastructure If The Project Is Canceled?
If the incoming administration doesn’t end the great train robbery, then Congress might. Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of Rocklin plans to introduce legislation that eliminates federal funding “for the failed California High-Speed Rail project.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Elon Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, called the California bullet ...
Blog
State Fair High Speed Rail Exhibit Shows Project That May Never Materialize in our Lifetimes
An HSR official told Newsweek that the showcase is “the culmination of years of construction progress, outreach, and community collaboration to make sure these trains and this system mirrors the diversity and vibrancy of the people who’ll ride it.” Too bad this grand “culmination” arrived so late. The project was ...
Cost of California’s High-Speed Rail Goes Up Again
It was also supposed to be carrying 65.5 million to 96.5 million intercity riders a year by 2030. Yet now 2040 is the date for “full service to start.” Skeptics don’t believe we’ll ever see the train run with paying customers aboard. “In my judgment, the Draft 2026 Business Plan describes a project that has reached a ...
Despite setbacks, inter-city bullet train boondoggles keep chugging along
The high-speed rail (HSR) community had a tough 2025. In April, the Trump administration nixed a $63.9 million grant to “the Amtrak Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor previously known as the Texas Central Railway project.” Justifying the decision, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy explained that if “the private sector believes ...
Lawsuit’s End Latest Sign of High Speed Rail’s Woes
An HSRA official said the decision to pull the lawsuit was made because “the federal government is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high-speed rail in California.” In reality, it’s a tacit admission from the HSRA that it doesn’t deserve the money. At this point, it’s become rather tedious to recite the high-speed rail’s ...
Plan to Tear Up Local Streets Latest Controversy for California’s Train to Nowhere
The Fresno Bee reports that streets in the center of city would have to be rebuilt as a series of overpasses and underpasses to avoid the road-level tracks for high-speed rail. The city was under the impression, based on a 2018 agreement, that the streets would remain as is while the train ...
The Train To Nowhere Goes Somewhere – Maybe
The promise of a bullet train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, and maybe even extending to San Diego to the south and Sacramento to the north, was broken longer before ground was broken in 2015 for the project. The route has been shortened, the construction timeline endlessly extended, and ...
Never Gonna Give You Up: Will High-Speed Rail Ever Be Scrapped?
Critics say the troubled project should be abandoned. They correctly point out that incurring sunk costs is a better outcome than continuing to spend tens of billions on a dream that is unlikely to be completed, and if it is, won’t be anything like the modern system promised to voters ...
California cities may now dodge bullet train destruction
In his May budget revision for fiscal year 2025-26, which began on July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom earmarked $1 billion a year for the next 20 years from the state’s cap-and-trade system toward the rail project. Like the wounded Black Knight in the “Tis but a scratch scene” in “Monty ...
Latest report shows California bullet train is really a train to nowhere
Will There Ever Be Any Good News About The High-Speed Rail?
Last month’s spike-driving ceremony was a feel-good story about the California bullet train. It was, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a “big damn deal” that indicated “progress” was being made on a project that is embarrassingly behind schedule and almost inconceivably over cost. It was an event for public consumption that ...
Will Trump finally put nail in coffin of CA's high speed rail boondoggle?
Can California Find Other Uses For Bullet Train Infrastructure If The Project Is Canceled?
If the incoming administration doesn’t end the great train robbery, then Congress might. Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of Rocklin plans to introduce legislation that eliminates federal funding “for the failed California High-Speed Rail project.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Elon Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, called the California bullet ...
State Fair High Speed Rail Exhibit Shows Project That May Never Materialize in our Lifetimes
An HSR official told Newsweek that the showcase is “the culmination of years of construction progress, outreach, and community collaboration to make sure these trains and this system mirrors the diversity and vibrancy of the people who’ll ride it.” Too bad this grand “culmination” arrived so late. The project was ...